One of Tennessee Association of Dance’s past Executive Directors was deeply involved with the creation of Arts Ed Tennessee. It is a coalition of arts education advocates across artistic disciplines. Members include educators and corporate and community leaders. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, their focus is on promoting supportive arts education policies and budgets at the state level, while building advocacy capacity at the local level.

ArtsEd Tennessee advances, promotes, and supports music, theatre, dance, and visual art education through a robust statewide coalition of arts education advocates, including education, community, business, and parent members. Their work is informed by a cross-section of more than 300 stakeholders who attended five-day long workshops in 2019 convened to build a collective vision for strengthening the work of educators, administrators, and anyone invested in quality arts education. Sponsored by Americans for the Arts with funding from the CMA Foundation, the workshops where held in Knoxville, Chattanooga, Nashville, Martin, and Memphis. The report developed from that meeting can be found here.

Focused on state policy, ArtsEd Tennessee is a champion for supportive policies and essential funding to advance quality, accessible arts education for all students. ArtsEd Tennessee believes in working collaboratively with the Tennessee State Legislature, State Board of Education, State Department of Education, and other state and NGO agencies to advance arts education in the state, seeking input and guidance on regulatory, policy, and budgetary issues. The organization feels arts classes should be aligned with Tennessee Fine Arts Content Standards and taught by licensed, highly skilled in the subject area being taught teachers, in appropriate facilities, with adequate funding.

With the purpose of enhancing, enriching, and strengthening school-based instruction and providing connections to careers in the arts and professional artists, ArtsEd Tennessee develops partnerships with the arts and culture community.

Those wishing to get more involved in Arts Education Advocacy can find resources here and here and here.