ARTS LEARNING

The OAC believes that the development of the creative mind is essential for each of us to reach our full human potential. All individuals deserve to experience and learn about the arts, test their imaginations and tap their creative spirit throughout life. Cultivating creativity for all ages through the arts has important implications, including increased literacy and academic success, an inventive and skilled workforce, improved health and well-being, enhanced social and cognitive development and cultural understanding.

Learning in the arts is most effective as a sequential, in-depth process. Quality arts learning experiences should lead to an increased understanding of the role that the arts play in daily life, improvements in communication skills, a greater capacity for critical response and a new appreciation of why people value the arts. The OAC strives to achieve the following outcomes through its Arts Learning programs and resources:

• Children, youth and/or adults demonstrate skills and deepen their knowledge and/or understanding of the arts;
• Teachers, artists and/or others demonstrate knowledge and skills necessary to engage participants in arts learning;
• State and local entities, along with the broader community, demonstrate a commitment to increasing access to arts learning for children, youth or adults;
• The nature of teaching and learning in the arts is better understood through credible research and scholarship.

The OAC has three grant categories--Artist Express, Artist in Residence and Arts Partnership--as well as the Arts Learning Artist Directory that support passionate and disciplined engagement in the arts for learners of all ages. Through the programs and services offered by the Arts Learning program, the OAC seeks to make Ohio's schools, senior centers and community gathering places of all kinds creative places where people from diverse backgrounds and cultures find expanded opportunities to learn in, through and with the arts.

The following programs are part of the Arts Learning program:

Artist Express
Artist in Residence: Artists
Artist in Residence: Sponsors
Arts Partnership

View a list of Arts Learning FAQs.