CMA Foundation Expands Arts Initiative With TN Department Of Education

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The CMA Foundation has expanded its Tennessee: State of the Arts initiative to offer financial support for arts programs in each of the 147 public school districts across the state of Tennessee.

The next phase of the program is understanding the criteria necessary to establish better arts education programs and discovering barriers affecting the quality of arts education programming to better inform policymaking, district strategic planning, development of resources and support systems, and investment/philanthropic activities.

This will be done with the State of the Arts Study, a first-of-its-kind statewide arts education landscape analysis. The Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, one of the CMA Foundation’s long-standing music education partners, will conduct each needs assessment.

Administrators from each district can now apply for a free needs assessment of their arts program to determine inequities that exist, allowing the CMA Foundation to offer impactful solutions benefitting students.

“The Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation applauds the Tennessee Department of Education and the CMA Foundation for recognizing the tremendous impact arts education has on youth development and for utilizing our Music (and Arts) Education District Support Services to conduct this important State of the Arts Study,” says Tricia Williams, Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation Program Director. “These assessments will inform school, district and state decision-makers as to the current state of arts education at every school and the resources and support needed in order for all students to have access to quality, sequential and sustainable arts programming. This State of the Arts Study will position the state of Tennessee as a leader in the nation utilizing the power of community specific, data-driven information to address and eliminate core issues challenging arts education.”

Originally launched in 2018, the CMA Foundation’s Tennessee: State of the Arts initiative is a public-private partnership with the Tennessee Department of Education, which provided an initial $1 million investment to offer financial support to eight public school districts across the state–Bradley, Coffee, Gibson SSD, Greene, Rutherford, Sevier, Shelby and Warren.

“We have learned a lot about our identity as a music education nonprofit throughout the last 10 years, but I think one of our greatest learnings has been that in order to provide impactful solutions, you need to rely on data and research to truly understand inequities that exist,” says Tiffany Kerns, CMA Foundation Executive Director. “Our expanded needs assessments will allow every district across the state of Tennessee to think strategically about arts access, while also addressing quality issues and strengthening relationships with arts educators. We are firm believers that no dollar is wasted when you are addressing actual needs versus making assumptions. When we can equip public school districts with accurate data, we are able to better prioritize our funding to provide the most impact while also helping our district partners to create long-term strategies.”

Since the initiative’s launch, the CMA Foundation has gained a wealth of knowledge from each of the eight districts and common needs, emerged including the need for high-quality instructional materials and curriculum, educator development, equipment and instructional supplies, student intervention, remediation and enrichment, and innovative programming.

Lorie Hollabaugh
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