Ingenuity State of the Arts Report 2016-17 Ingenuity_SOTA_2016-17 | Page 51

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
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Community partnerships can serve as a valuable resource to CPS schools and
arts instructors looking to augment, enhance, and reinforce arts instruction
that is already in place at a school. While credentialed arts instructors are
primarily responsible for students’ arts education, community arts partners
can provide unique opportunities for enrichment experiences in and outside
the classroom.
Community arts partners come in many forms, from large cultural
institutions that partner with many schools across the district, to smaller
arts organizations that focus their programs in one specific neighborhood,
to independent teaching artists who work with one or more schools
either on their own or through a relationship with another arts partner.
Each contributes in their own way to enhancing CPS students’ arts
education experiences.
In 2016–17, Ingenuity identified 521 active community arts partners,
down from the numbers seen in previous years, which ranged from 552 in
2013–14 to 579 in 2015–16. However, the share of schools that benefit from a
partnership has remained steady from year to year: this year 97 percent of
schools had at least one partnership; most had multiple partnerships.
On average, there were 6.7 unique arts partnerships per school across
the district, the highest average in five years of data collection
(up from six in 2015–16).
Arts partners reported offering programs in all five arts disciplines. Of the
474 29 partners that provided information on their arts discipline, the largest
share, 40 percent, reported offering music programs (up from 32 percent in
2015–16), visual arts (34 percent), and theatre (31 percent). Fewer partners
reported offering dance (24 percent), media arts (16 percent), and other
disciplines (26 percent). 30 The share of partners offering programs in dance,
media arts, and theatre is particularly noteworthy in light of the fact that
only 18 percent of the arts instructors in the district teach in one of those
three disciplines.
MUSIC, VISUAL ARTS, AND THEATRE ARE THE THREE MOST REPORTED DISCIPLINES
OFFERED BY ARTS PARTNERS
DANCE
MEDIA ARTS
16%
24%
MUSIC
THEATRE
VISUAL ARTS
OTHER
29
30
While 521 arts partners were identified by schools, 474 of those partners completed the
“arts discipline” section of their partner profile on artlookpartners.com.
These percentages do not add up to 100% since arts partners can report multiple disciplines.
26%
31%
34%
40%
PROGRESS REPORT | 2016–17