"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance."  -  Aristotle

As we near the end of another great school year, it is a perfect time to recognize the amazing work that takes place at Art in Action schools around the country. With over 1,600 participating classrooms, not a school day went by without a teacher or parent volunteer somewhere presenting the joy, confidence, and skills that an arts education brings to their children. This year, the Art in Action program helped shape the future of students in over 180 schools from Alaska to Florida and from Pennsylvania to Hawaii.

During the year, nearly 46,000 students studied artworks like Piet Mondrian's Composition #2, Romare Bearden's She-Ba and a Ming Dynasty textile of a dragon. They created personal narratives through mixed media in 8th grade, painted watercolor landscapes with horses in perspective in 5th grade and made clay shields with stylized figures in 3rd grade. Teachers integrated art into core subject areas like social studies, math and language arts, and some of them taught yoga, PE, music and dance alongside some of the lessons too.

The creativity, critical thinking, and visual literacy skills that Art in Action students are developing will help them on their way to becoming the leaders of tomorrow.  None of this would have been possible without our hard-working staff, Board of Directors, sponsors, donors and partner schools who, working together, are helping to provide a culture of art in schools everywhere.

But there is lots more work to do. There are still thousands of schools that offer little to no arts instruction. We are contacted by schools everyday that would like to get started with art but don't have the resources to do so. That's why we partner with otganizations like the recent Silicon Valley Gives event where we raised over $60,000 in 24 hours toward expanding our programs.

You don't have to wait for a special event to help bring art to more schools and more students.  Please click here to make a donation today to make sure all students have access to a full arts education.

You won't want to miss the blockbuster exhibition, Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery of Art  at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, June 21st,  at 9:00 am. On view are seventy Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings on loan from the National Gallery of Art. Delight in Degas' ballerinas and racehorses, Cezanne's still lifes and Renoir's 1872 portrait of Monet! Register Now