Welcome to USU ArtsBridge!

Who We Are

USU ArtsBridge is an affiliate of ArtsBridge America, a unique research-based school/university partnership in arts education. ArtsBridge America is a network of university schools of art and education dedicated to providing high-quality arts instruction to K-12 schoolchildren and community organizations. There are currently ArtsBridge programs at 24 universities in 13 states and Northern Ireland. Utah State University’s ArtsBridge program began in fall 2007. Other ArtsBridge campuses in Utah include University of Utah, Southern Utah University, and Brigham Young University.

USU ArtsBridge provides scholarships to qualified arts and arts education students to provide instruction and implement projects in visual arts, theatre, music, music therapy, dance, landscape architecture, interior design, creative writing, and the digital arts. The ArtsBridge scholar works collaboratively with the classroom teacher and community leaders to create unique projects in the arts, which are linked to state standards as well as individual classroom and community needs. For elementary teachers without specialization in the arts, this support can awaken teachers’ appreciation for the value of arts in education. And for arts specialists, these passionate young artists can supplement and expand existing arts instruction.
ArtsBridge promotes locally-initiated arts education; civic engagement through the arts; consistent and sequential, hands-on instruction in the arts during the school day; exemplary models of arts teaching, particularly in integrating arts across the curriculum; and professional support for public school teachers. Programs are continually evaluated, and administrative costs are closely controlled.

ArtsBridge benefits all of its partners: local K-12 schoolchildren and teachers, university students and faculty, and community organizations. Initial evaluations indicate that schoolchildren develop increased interest and abilities in the arts as well as growth in verbal and language abilities, concentration, classroom participation, and interest in attending college. Participating teachers express increased appreciation for and confidence in using the arts in their curriculum. And ArtsBridge scholars report overwhelming interest in pursuing careers in teaching and involvement in community service.

The cognitive, social, and personal benefits from arts instruction are not unique to ArtsBridge. What makes the program unique is the involvement of research faculty in the arts and education through the Center for Learning through the Arts, at the University California Irvine's Department of Education. The national network of ArtsBridge America programs brings the powerful arts resources of some of the nation’s largest public universities to bear on improved learning in K-12. ArtsBridge classrooms enable the study of learning in and through the arts, effective curricular strategies for improved learning in our schools, and ways in which arts learning contributes to the achievement and success of our children. ArtsBridge responds to community needs and has been equally successful outside of the classroom, in hospitals, senior centers and other community-based environments.

ArtsBridge America Mission Objectives

1. To provide ongoing instruction in the arts for K-12 students in a manner that allows them to explore their own creativity while benefiting from the intrinsic and cross-curricular value of the arts;

2. To provide continuous, capacity building professional support for our nation’s K-12 teachers that affords unique opportunities to integrate the arts into the traditional curricula in ways that address both local classroom needs as well as state and national standards in the arts;

3. To provide school-based service learning opportunities for top university students in the visual and performing arts;

4. To promote and present career pathways in the arts among highly qualified university students; and

5. To conduct and disseminate research on partnerships in the visual and performing arts that informs local educators, policymakers, and the public at large.

Strategies used by ArtsBridge are well aligned with bipartisan educational agendas that value the arts as a fundamental component of the core curriculum in K-12 and that call for no child to be left behind. The education reform principles of ArtsBridge are that our nation’s public schools need arts education as a regular component of a comprehensive curriculum that will lead to student success, and that universities should apply their vast stores of expertise and personnel on behalf of K-12 improvements in teacher support and child learning.

ArtsBridge America Principles

1. The ArtsBridge school/university partnership model supports top undergraduate and graduate students through scholarships, fellowships, and/or course credit, in return for their offering instruction in K-12 classrooms, or undertaking extended arts related projects in healthcare or other community settings. Arts instruction provided by ArtsBridge is linked to national and state K-12 educational standards.

2. ArtsBridge emphasizes hands-on, participatory instruction and involvement. The primary goal is to engage school aged children actively in the acquisition of knowledge and skills, the creation of art, and discovery across disciplines.

3. ArtsBridge responds to local priorities. Participating host schoolteachers, healthcare and community service providers identify their needs and are actively involved in the definition and desired outcomes of their ArtsBridge projects.

4. K-12 classroom ArtsBridge projects are integrated into the school day and bridge to other subjects in the curriculum.

5. ArtsBridge projects offer one-on-one professional support to its hosting teachers, healthcare providers and community service providers. The projects are sustainable; ArtsBridge scholars document their projects so that the host institution can continue to use them after the initial project has ended.

6. ArtsBridge measures the quality and impact of its work through observation reports, host and scholar evaluations, pre-post tests, and other means of measuring cognitive, social and personal development in participating students.

7. ArtsBridge concentrates on low-performing public schools, and works to promote academic preparedness, and access to higher education for all children.

"What’s exciting about ArtsBridge is the deep engagement of all involved – art students, faculty mentors, public school teachers and public school children – which results in a more lasting impact."

David Dynak, ArtsBridge Past Director, University of Utah, Salt Lake City