NAEA Position Statement on Community Collaborations

NAEA recognizes that the visual arts, design, and media arts are grounded in the communities from which they come. Communities are complex, dynamic, and diverse. Communities bring people together and prompt individuals to identify themselves and each other as members of a group. NAEA supports visual art educators’ efforts to collaborate with community and cultural organizations to further visual arts education and provide equitable access to community assets and resources. NAEA members are encouraged to work with local, state, and national organizations that share common visions and goals. Educational programs such as National Art Honor Society, National Art Junior Honor Society, Arts Clubs, and Museum Outreach Programs offer valuable opportunities for community partnerships.

Examples of potential community and cultural organizations for collaborations include (but are not limited to):

• Museums
• community arts organizations
• art guilds
• local arts councils
• cultural institutions
• local businesses
• indigenous, folk, and family artists
• art apprenticeships, mentoring, work-based learning
• pre-college, dual-credit, and concurrent enrollment;

Resulting community arts collaborations can be nurtured through partnership projectsand advocacy efforts.

Resources:

National Organizations that support work with Community and Cultural Arts Organization:

• Americans for the Arts - https://www.americansforthearts.org/
• National Guild for Community Arts - https://nationalguild.org/

NAEA Webinars

• NAEA Need to Know Webcast - Creating Community Through Artistic Collaboration - https://learning.arteducators.org/products/naea-need-to-know-webcast-place-based-art-creating-community-through-artistic-collaboration