Arts Ed NJ has been approved for a $500,000 multi-year grant from the Geraldine R Dodge Foundation. The grant was awarded to support its mission as a unifying organization and central resource for arts education information, policy, and advocacy in New Jersey.
“We are so proud to have continued support from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation,” said Arts Ed NJ Executive Director, Wendy Liscow. “This grant is a testimony to years of hard work from all our partners across New Jersey who have fought to make New Jersey a leader in arts education.”
Arts Ed NJ is one of four multi-year grants supporting long-standing, statewide arts education programs and projects.
“We are particularly proud of the robust arts education ecosystem that has grown and developed over the past 10-plus years across the state, and the role that the Dodge Foundation played in collaborating with and supporting that ecosystem. These organizations have had a tremendous impact in strengthening arts programming across the state – creating models of impact that are regarded and often replicated nationwide” stated Tanuja Dehne, President & CEO of the Dodge Foundation.
Launched in 2007, Arts Ed NJ believes that the arts are an essential part of every child’s education, and must be part of the solution to the many challenges facing our education system. Our diverse coalition of statewide partners works together to influence state policy and motivate local communities to make quality arts instruction and experiences a part of each child’s education.
We work to achieve our goals by focusing on our strategic areas of work:
- Demonstrating the value of arts education by conducting and disseminating research.
- Ensuring that state education policy continues to mandate arts education as an essential part of every child’s education.
- Strengthening local arts education programs through direct support services for school districts.
- Expanding role as the central clearinghouse for all arts education resources and services in NJ.
- Communicating the value of arts education to a wide variety of constituencies.
- Strengthening Arts Ed NJ’s organizational capacity so that it can better advance its mission.
Through these six areas of work, Arts Ed NJ envisions a system that offers quality arts education for every child, every day, and every year. We believe that enhanced arts education programs will foster innovation in our state, ensuring that students learn how to harness their own creativity and use it in every aspect of their lives.
And perhaps most importantly, we look forward to a time in which the benefits of arts education are widely accepted by a public who cares about educating the whole child in our state.
