Young Audiences Announces New Principal Fellowship to Boost School Achievement
Through the Arts
Paid fellowship for Baltimore City School Leaders begins this summer
BALTIMORE – Young Audiences, the local nonprofit committed to infusing students’ education with arts experiences, announced today a new Principal Fellowship program that guides Baltimore City Public School principals in integrating the arts into learning for school-wide improvement. Principals participating in this yearlong fellowship will gain full understanding of the power of the arts to transform school culture, enhance learning and foster social emotional growth while creating action plans for expanding the arts’ presence in their schools.
The program, designed to support Baltimore City Public Schools’ Blueprint For Success priorities of whole child development, literacy, and leadership, is based in the belief that school-wide commitment to the arts begins with leadership and can be a lever for school change. Analyses of Young Audiences’ work integrating the arts into learning for more than 200,000 students a year has shown transformative impact on academic and social emotional growth. Sharing these approaches with school leaders will exponentially expand that impact.
Applications for the Fellowship are open until May 20 for the 11-session program that begins this summer. Participating principals will receive a $500 honorarium plus $2,000 to help implement arts- based approaches at their schools.
Participating principals will experience collaborative planning sessions, one-on-one coaching with master teaching artists and school leaders, observations of arts integration in action at Young Audiences’ Summer Arts & Learning Academy, and visits to local cultural institutions. Additional features of the Principal Fellowship include:
- Exploring evidence-based impact on academic achievement, social-emotional development, and school culture in collaborative environment
- Addressing arts-related administrative barriers such as staffing, planning, and teacher professional development
- Discovering valuable arts and arts integration resources of local cultural institutions
- Building skills in observing and evaluating arts-integrated classroom instruction
“The power of the arts to transform learning can be seen in the more than 7,000 hands-on arts experiences we deliver to students each year,” said Stacie Sanders Evans, Young Audiences President & CEO. “And in every school we visit, we realize that success starts with a leader committed to integrating the arts into student learning. That’s why we created this Principal Fellowship - to help school leaders provide meaningful arts-based experiences to students.”
For more information about the Young Audiences Principal Fellowship or to apply, visit https://www.yamd.org/principal-fellowship/
