Arts Education

 
The Ensemble seeks to connect and inform all people who are committed to ensemble music education for youth empowerment and social change.
 
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EDITORIAL
Playing in the Same Key: Aligning Purpose and Practice for Students

Fiona Cunningham, Director, Academy for Impact through Music

03-04-2026

“What’s the biggest thing keeping you up at night, as a leader or as a teaching artist?”

When Nikoletta Polydorou, founder of Sistema Cyprus, recently posed this question to music-for-social-action leaders and teaching artists across different countries and contexts, one concern surfaced repeatedly: when a program’s purpose isn’t clear, and collectively owned, the learning is less focused and effective.

U.S. Music Education Programs Invited to Join Music Inclusion Hub

 

 

03-04-2026

The Music Inclusion Hub (MIH) invites U.S.-based music education programs to join their online resource center, hosting culturally responsive learning materials for students of all ages.

Re-birth: 18 Years of Music, Meaning, and Maturing

Elizabeth Njoroge, Founder and Executive Director, Art of Music Foundation

03-04-2026

Many of the students we began with, back in 2006, are the first in their families to finish school, to attend university, and to build careers. The truly amazing part is that now, as young adults, their dream is not to escape. Their dream is to return. They come back to their communities—with purpose, compassion, and determination. More often than not, they come back to Ghetto Classics as teachers. Most of our current 42 teachers once sat where our students now sit. The learners have become leaders.

Which means, of course, that the program no longer “belongs” to me.

Genesis Inspiration Foundation Arts Education Grants for U.S. Nonprofits

12-03-2025

The Genesis Inspiration Foundation funds U.S. nonprofit programs that improve access to arts education for children, both in and out of the classroom.

EDITORIAL
Young People Are Speaking To Us. Are We Close Enough to Hear Them?

Dalouge Smith, Founder and Executive Director, The Creating Abundance Collaborative; Co-founder and CEO, The Lewis Prize, 2018–2024

12-03-2025

I’d been missing the presence and perspective of young people in these gatherings dedicated to arts education, young people’s wellbeing, and community health through the arts. When young people were present, it was most often as performers, and occasionally as panelists alongside adults.

Throughout these events, I had been wondering, “How is it that we continue to position young people as objects of conversation, and not the subject?”

RESEO Offers Free Fundraising Webinar

11-05-2025

The European Network for Opera, Music and Dance Education (RESEO) will host a free webinar on November 17 with specific guidance for arts education organizations looking to apply to major European funding programs.

300 Years of Classical Music in 18 Minutes

09-03-2025

Classical violinist Joshua Bell takes his audience through 300 years of classical music in his recent TED Talk.

In Thailand, an International Partnership Opens New Pathways

Thomas Duncan, Chief Programs Officer, Playing For Change Foundation

07-09-2025

With their decades of positive impact and wealth of institutional knowledge, it would have been easy for DWS to focus on maintaining their success. Instead, we at the Playing For Change Foundation were recently privileged to partner with DWS to bolster and expand their music program. The initial goals of our partnership were simple: identify and hire professional music educators who can help take the existing program to the next level, and maintain the standard of excellence that DWS has achieved in its other extracurricular programming.

GUEST PERSPECTIVE
The Courage to Create: Helping Students Sing through Fear

Meagan Mayne, Founder, Meagan Mayne Voice Studio

06-04-2025

Singing (really, any artistic act) is an act of vulnerability. Your voice is you—your breath, your body, your emotions, your story. When you sing, you offer all of that up; even after a lifetime of performing, I still feel that fear when I step on stage.

If performing can be scary for us educators, how much scarier must it be for teen students still discovering their identity—for whom “fitting in” can feel like the most important thing?

UNGA Healing Arts Week Call For Proposals

05-07-2025

Many of us have witnessed the arts’ positive impact on the health and wellbeing of our communities. The Jameel Arts & Health Lab invites you to share your experiences as a practitioner, educator, or researcher as part of their annual symposium “Re-Imagining Health Through the Arts” on September 22 at New York University.

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