It can NOT be the last day of August?! This was an exceptionally busy summer for us. How about you?

With the last day of August, we mark the first official day that both our DCPS and DC public charter school students and their teachers are back in school. Teachers will be reviewing the AFES catalogue today - hot off the virtual press  here. We look forward to an amazing 2015-2016 school year with each of our arts and humanities educational providers and friends.

As part of National Arts in Education Week (September 13-17,) our Annual Members Meeting and networking time will be held at THEARC on Thursday, September 17th from 3:00-5:30pm. Annually, we gather to share with our membership and stakeholders the success of our previous year working together and we couldn't think of a better host than Edmund Fleet and his team at THEARC to help kick off our new school year! At the meeting, we'll provide updates to members on budget and officially vote-in new board members. This year, we've listened to your requests for additional networking time and have re-framed the meeting so that the presentations will take place promptly at 3:00pm and networking time (with refreshments,) will follow immediately after at approximately 4:00pm.

We've continued to have our "listening ears" on and in the collective spirit of supporting the needs of our membership and our extended arts and humanities education community of practice, we have created a DC Arts and Humanities Collective Impact Group (DC CIG). (Please read our recent blog-post on "The Importance of Collective Impact." here) We'll share more about the work of this working group and invite everyone to join the group at our Annual Members Meeting. Please RSVP here for our Annual Membership Meeting.

Interested in learning more before September 17th and getting further involved? Please join the Membership Committee. We'll be meeting on September 8th from 1:00-2:00pm - there will be donuts! - at the DC Collaborative office. RSVP here.

Looking ahead, the DC Collaborative is honored to be a finalist in the Excellence in Service to the Arts category for the 30th Annual Mayor's Arts Awards to take place in October. Thanks you to and our 95 institutional members and counting! This designation for the DC Collaborative is truly the result of ALL of our community's collective work!

Please help us make our impact greater! Please become Friend of the DC Collaborative Individual Member. We've launched our individual Friends of the Collaborative this summer for those of you who wish to personally support the work of the Collaborative in addition to the support provided through your institutional membership. Individual membership supports all of the work that we do together in bridging the gap between our great institutions of arts and humanities with our future artists and consumers who will support them tomorrow.

Look forward to seeing you September 17th at THEARC!

We are pleased to hold our Annual 

Members Meeting at THEARC.  Thank you to our host!

Student involvement in arts programming has been linked to reduced dropout rates , increased standardized test scores and higher academic performance. Students need greater access to high-quality arts education opportunities, in and beyond the classroom. 

District of Learning is helping them gain this access and create pathways to their future through the use of learning data embedded within digital badges.

 

District of Learning is a new ecosystem that connects students, families, and educators with learning opportunities across all eight wards of the city. Much like the DC Collaborative, District of Learning is built on the premise that no one institution on its own can prepare young people for their future - that it takes citizens, community organization, schools, places of worship, and cultural institutions to support young people. District of Learning recognizes anytime-anywhere learning and leverages the power of digital badges to facilitate a citywide ecosystem of learning.  District of Learning is part of the national Cities of Learning movement that includes efforts in Chicago, Dallas, and Pittsburgh.