K - 8 Arts Education Forum, Washington, D.C.
October 2002
The K-8 Arts Education Forum, held October 17-19, 2002, was the first meeting hosted by the Institute for Education and the Arts. Six teams of teachers and administrators from schools and communities across the country gathered for three days to critique the design and plans for the Institute prior to its official launch.

Participating schools and communities were:

• Homer and Seldovia Public Schools, Alaska;
• San Francisco Unified School District, California;
• Interlochen Pathfinder School, Traverse City, Michigan;
• Ashley River Creative Arts Elementary School, Charleston, South Carolina;
• The Arts and Technology Academy, Washington, DC; and
• Johnson Jr. High School, Washington, DC.

A key focus of this meeting was to begin to explore ways in which the collections and curators of the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian could be more directly and effectively connected to schools and communities outside the DC area, especially when used in support of the local curriculum.

This was also the first time the Institute worked with other organizations to test and demonstrate the use of the arts as a tool for teaching concepts and content of academic subjects.

The original Institute plan was built on bringing groups to Washington, DC, but our Forum participants precipitated a significant change in the design. The cry to “Take the Institute on the road” was loud and clear.

And so, the K-8 Arts Education Forum led to the first National Overture of Education and the Arts, held in the Grand Traverse Bay area of Michigan in April 2003, and laid the groundwork for what has become an extremely valuable process of collaboration with local educators, artists, civic and business leaders, and public officials across the country.

View the Forum agenda (PDF).