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 The 2008-2009 AP Educators Guide is now available!  Click here to download the pdf version!

Dallas ArtsPartnersDallas ArtsPartners (AP) is a community collaboration between the Dallas Independent School District (DISD), the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, and more than 60 professional arts and cultural organizations, of which Big Thought serves as the Managing Partner. Big Thought’s responsibilities to the Dallas ArtsPartners include program design implementation, private sector fundraising, governance, and fiscal management.

Dallas ArtsPartners was designed to:

  • Provide all DISD elementary students with equal access to high quality arts programs offered by the city’s professional arts and cultural institutions,
  • Train every DISD elementary classroom teacher to integrate those programs into the curriculum to benefit student academic achievement and learning in the arts, and
  • Ensure that ArtsPartners is an institutional, sustainable part of Dallas’ school district and cultural community and a suitable model for replication across the nation.

Dallas ArtsPartners coordinates both school day programs that integrate programming across the curriculum, and after-school (21st Century Community Learning Centers) and summer (Summer in the City) programs that provide curriculum support. All AP programs directly support the state curriculum standards and offer links to every core curriculum subject. The estimated 15,000 programs provided by AP’s cultural partners each year include in-school performances, field trip performances, artist residencies, master classes, workshops, and guided tours, and incorporate dozens of arts and cultural disciplines.

AP promotes educators’ success in integrating arts and cultural resources into curricula by providing a tiered Professional Development System that employs multiple trainings and educational materials. Every DISD elementary teacher receives AP’s services.

AP’s three-year plus longitudinal study examines the effects of AP on students, teachers, and cultural organizations. The study is longitudinal, rigorous, intensive, collaborative and literacy-focused.  To see that study, go to AP 3-year Assessment.

Dallas ArtsPartners serves each of the 156 public elementary schools in the city, reaching a total of 101,000 children and 6,000 elementary educators. For more information, see Dallas ArtsPartners.