Arts For Learning NW

We talk a lot about test scores.

But what about this: students in arts-integrated schools showed an 8% increase in compassion for others.

The same 2019 Brookings randomized controlled trial that documented academic gains also measured social-emotional outcomes. And the results were clear—arts education builds the skills that help students thrive in a classroom, in a community, in life.

This is what whole-child learning looks like.

Source: Brookings Institution / Houston RCT, 2019
photo: Mark Brody at Elmonica Elementary School

Sometimes a single moment tells you everything.

A kindergartner — new to English, finding his footing in a new language, a new school, a new world — walks into a classroom where a teaching artist is waiting.
And something opens up.

This spring, 35,000 students across our region had access to that kind of moment. For some, it was the first time they'd ever truly felt seen in a classroom. For others, it was the first time they found the words — or the movement, or the music — to say what they needed to say.

That's what your support makes possible.

Our Spring Giving Campaign is open now. Link in bio to make a gift — and to be part of what comes next for kids like him. 🌸

Wonderful news to share. 🎉

Arts for Learning NW has received a two-year, $66,000 grant ($33,000 for two years) from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation.

This support goes directly toward what matters most — making sure that students across our region have access to the arts. To teaching artists who show up every week. To residencies that change how a child sees themselves and what they believe is possible.

35,000 students. 27 school districts. One community showing up for its kids.
We are so grateful to the Miller Foundation for being part of that community. Thank you. 🙏🎨

What does it look like when a student is truly engaged in school?

They lean in. They ask questions. They show up — not because they have to, but because something in that classroom is speaking to them.

Researchers at Rice University found that arts education experiences are "particularly noteworthy" for their positive effects on school engagement — appearing consistently across student subgroups in the largest randomized controlled trial ever conducted in arts education.

This finding matters because engagement isn't just a feel-good metric. It's the foundation everything else is built on. A student who is engaged learns more, misses less, and stays longer.

This year, 35,000 students in our region had access to that experience — through teaching artist residencies that brought music, visual arts, theatre, spoken word, and dance into their classrooms.

35,000 students who got to lean in.

Source: Bowen & Kisida, Rice University / Houston ISD, 2019

🎨 artsforlearningnw.org
📸 photo credit Jess Graff

This year, children's access to the arts faced real pressure — and our community said: not here.

Teaching artists showed up. Educators made space. Partners held the line. And supporters like you chose to invest in something essential.

The result: 35,000 students got to make art this year.

They created murals and wrote lyrics about friendship. They sang music from cultures around the world. For some, it was the first time they'd ever truly found their voice.

That didn't happen by accident. It happened because of collective belief and collective action.

This spring, we're asking our community to come together again — to ensure that arts education in our region is not just sustained, but strengthened. Because children's access to a full, creative education is not a luxury. It is a necessity.

See link in the comments to make a gift. 🎨🌱

In 2019, researchers at Rice University ran the largest randomized controlled trial ever conducted in arts education. 10,548 students. 42 schools. Rigorous experimental design.

One of their findings has stayed with us.

Students who received arts education showed measurable improvement in expository writing — the kind of writing where you have to say something, take a position, and defend it in your own words.

Not fill-in-the-blank. Not multiple choice. Your words. Your argument. Your voice on the page.

In an era when AI can generate a competent paragraph on any topic in three seconds, that finding hits differently.

The students who most need arts education — the ones in Title I schools, the ones whose access to arts outside of school is limited by income and geography — are exactly the students who most need practice finding and using their own voice.

That's what a teaching artist does. Every residency. Every week.

Source: Bowen & Kisida, Rice University / Houston ISD, 2019

🎨 artsforlearningnw.org

Another school year is coming to a close—and we're feeling every bit of it.

Hundreds of classrooms. Thousands of students. Teaching artists who showed up every single week—with their instruments, their paintbrushes, their voices, their vision—and changed something.

Featuring Shoka Stonelake, Lulu Moonwood Murakami, Inka Jam, Alex Addy, Mo Phillips, Beth Wilson, Mark Brody, and Kids Junk Orchestra.

And to all 120+ of our amazing Teaching Artists: thank you for another remarkable year.

See you in the fall. 🎨

IT PASSED. 🎉

Portland City Council just voted yes on updates to the Arts Education and Access Tax — and Portland's kids are the winners.

Here's what just changed:
✅ The arts tax is indexed to inflation for the first time — protecting funding that had lost 25% of its purchasing power
✅ A dedicated funding category for arts education organizations is coming — the ones putting teaching and cultural artists directly in classrooms
✅ The City committed to developing a plan for teaching artist programming in schools — naming this work as a City priority for the first time ever. It's a real opening, and we intend to shape it.

This happened because our community showed up. Teaching artists wrote letters. Families made calls. People testified. You made noise for kids who couldn't make it to City Hall themselves.

At Arts for Learning NW, we are ready to deliver. 40,000 students. 120 teaching and cultural artists. The infrastructure exists — and now, so does the commitment.

Every child in Portland deserves the experience of being seen, of having their culture matter, of discovering they have something to say. Today, this city took a real step toward making that possible.

Thank you, Portland. 💛

The numbers are in. And they're remarkable.

A landmark study tracked more than 22,000 students over 12 years. The finding? Students with high arts involvement were five times more likely to graduate high school than their peers with low arts involvement.

Five times. Not a rounding error. Not a footnote.

At Arts for Learning NW, we see this every day — in the teaching artist who makes a student feel seen for the first time, in the residency that keeps a disengaged kid coming back to school, in the program that gives a child a reason to picture their own future.

The research backs what we know to be true: arts education isn't enrichment. It's infrastructure.

📊 Source: The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth, National Endowment for the Arts (Catterall, Dumais & Hampden-Thompson, 2012)