Arts Schools Network

09/02/2026

🌟 San Diego is calling! And the 2026 Arts Schools Network Annual Conference is filling up fast! 🌟

This October 20–22, arts educators, leaders, advocates, and creative thinkers from across the country will come together in San Diego for “Borderless Creativity: Arts Bridging Cultures” with a chance to get out into the community and experience the incredible arts education and cultural landscape of San Diego firsthand! 🎨🎭🎶

Attendees can choose from these special experiences on Wednesday:

🎨 Creative Performing & Media Arts Middle School (CPMA)
🏛️ Freese Arts and Culture Museum Magnet School
🎭 La Jolla Playhouse
🎶 San Diego School for Creative and Performing Arts (SDSCPA)
🎨 Zamorano Fine Arts Academy

There’s just one catch: registration is moving quickly! The SDSCPA tour is already FULL, and we expect the remaining experiences to fill as well.

If you want to choose the experience that speaks to you, don’t wait to register! Come learn, connect, create, and experience the vibrant arts community of San Diego with your ASN colleagues from across the country.

📍 San Diego, California
📅 October 20–22, 2026
✨ Borderless Creativity: Arts Bridging Cultures
👉 Register and explore all the conference details: https://www.asnconference.org/

We can’t wait to see you in San Diego! 🌴🎨✨

08/28/2026

We are thrilled to see the work of our 2026 Arts Schools Network Higher Education Award recipient, San Diego State University, celebrated in this wonderful feature from SDSU News.

What makes SDSU’s work so deserving of recognition is its commitment to collaboration, connection, and the future of arts education. The College of Education and the College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts have broken down traditional silos to create pathways in theatre, dance, music, and fine art while building meaningful partnerships with local school districts and arts schools.

You can read the article here: https://www.sdsu.edu/news/2026/08/take-a-bow-sdsus-innovative-and-collaborative-approach-to-preparing-arts-education-gets-its-flowers

08/27/2026

📖 YOUR CONFERENCE. YOUR CHOICES. YOUR ADVENTURE.

Join us for the 2026 Arts Schools Network Conference in San Diego, October 20–22, and build a conference experience that fits you.

Along with choosing from a great lineup of sessions and school visits, attendees will have opportunities to explore San Diego’s vibrant arts and cultural community.

Your adventure might take you to:

🎨 Balboa Art Conservation Center
🌈 Chicano Park
🎲 Comic-Con Museum, with sessions on tabletop game design and community co-design
🎭 The Old Globe
🖼️ San Diego Institute of Contemporary Art
🎶 San Diego Opera
✍️ San Diego Writing Project
🎭 La Jolla Playhouse

Each location offers a chance to experience the people, places, ideas, and creative energy that make San Diego such an exciting destination for arts educators and leaders.

Three days. Lots of possibilities. Your adventure is waiting.

📍 San Diego, California
📅 October 20–22, 2026

Where will your ASN 2026 adventure take you? https://www.asnconference.org/

08/25/2026

Funding Opportunity for Theatre Educators:

The Andrew Lloyd Webber Initiative offers grants up to $50,000 for under-resourced K12 public schools for theatre education resources and equipment. Applications are due September 18, 2026. Learn more and apply here:

Classroom Resources Grants With the generous support of the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, the American Theatre Wing is investing in public schools to help drama teachers get more of the resources they need to provide quality theatre instruction in their schools. Through this grant-giving progra...

08/21/2026

Leaders, we’re back!
 
The Arts Schools Network Leadership Circle & Leadership League are returning.  These are spaces to connect, laugh, troubleshoot, share ideas, and remind each other that we’re all human, too.
 
✨ Leadership Circle — for Heads of School, Principals & Directors, facilitated by Jason Patera of The Cooper School and Drew Williams of Utah Arts Academy 
✨ Leadership League — for arts education leaders beyond the principal/head role, facilitated by Kesha McKey of New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and Sam Robles of San Diego School of the Creative and Performing Arts
 
Both groups are virtual, free with an active organizational ASN Membership, and built by leaders who understand the unique joys (and challenges!) of leading arts schools.
 
Come. Bring your questions.  Bring your ideas.  Bring the things keeping you up at night.  We’ve got you.
 
Learn more & join us:
https://www.artsschoolsnetwork.org/leadership-circle-leadership-league

08/19/2026

The Arts Schools Network is proud to recognize Forest Heights Academy of Excellence as an Exemplary School for its extraordinary commitment to making the arts a foundation of learning and student success.  Guided by a vision that values creativity, individuality, and a safe and nurturing environment, Forest Heights intentionally integrates the arts into both its curriculum and school culture.
 
Every student receives instruction in visual art, music, dance, and drama from certified teachers, with meaningful connections to learning across all subject areas.  Students might clap rhythms and perform multiplication raps to bring math concepts to life, or step into character through scriptwriting and reader’s theater while deepening their comprehension.  These experiences make learning memorable while building confidence, creativity, collaboration, and academic engagement.
 
What makes Forest Heights truly exemplary is its commitment to ensuring that every student has access to a comprehensive and diverse arts education.  Students develop foundational skills in the early grades and progress toward increasingly sophisticated artistic experiences, with opportunities to specialize in band, strings, or piano beginning in second grade.  Through this progression, students grow as creators, performers, and problem solvers while developing the skills and confidence to pursue advanced arts opportunities beyond elementary school.
 
Help us celebrate Forest Heights Academy of Excellence at the Arts Schools Network Conference in San Diego this October!  Join us October 20–22 as we recognize exemplary schools and celebrate the educators and students advancing arts education across the nation.  Learn more and join us: www.asnconference.org

08/18/2026

🎨 National Arts in Education Week is coming up! 🎭

Mark your calendars for September 13–19, 2026 and start planning now to celebrate the transformative power of arts education.

The National Arts in Education Week Toolkit from Americans for the Arts provides resources to help educators, advocates, arts organizations, and communities celebrate, amplify, and advocate for the essential role of the arts in education.

At Arts Schools Network, we encourage our community to get ready to raise awareness, share the impact of arts learning, and champion access to high-quality arts education for every student. 💙

Explore the toolkit and start planning for National Arts in Education Week:

National Arts in Education Week September 14-20, 2025 Every Student Deserves Access Every student deserves the opportunity to create, innovate, and thrive through the arts, regardless of zip code or family income. Yet more than 2 million students still lack access to a quality arts education.

08/18/2026

🩰🎹 Celebrating Alabama School of Fine Arts as an ASN Exemplary School! 🎨🎭🎶
 
The Arts Schools Network is proud to recognize Alabama School of Fine Arts (ASFA) for its extraordinary commitment to immersive arts education. 
 
At ASFA students experience a powerful fusion of art and science, school and society, risk and reward, and fact and feeling.  Students spend a minimum of 180 minutes each day in their arts specialty courses, with many spending even more time immersed in their chosen discipline.  This intentional commitment creates a distinctive school culture where students find their community, develop confidence and self-worth, and grow from technical proficiency toward a deeper sense of identity as artists.
 
Under the guidance of accomplished practicing artists, students examine the world around them, creating a powerful interplay between artistic critique and critical thinking.
 
Looking toward the future, ASFA continues to innovate through plans for a new media arts program, campus expansion, expanded residential capacity, evolving middle school curriculum, and broader partnerships that position the school as a resource for students, educators, and arts organizations throughout Alabama.
 
Congratulations to Alabama School of Fine Arts on this well-deserved recognition! Your fierce commitment to mission, immersive arts education, interdisciplinary learning, and the development of young artists exemplifies the transformative power of arts education.  We are honored to celebrate your students, faculty, and entire ASFA community! 
 
Help us celebrate Alabama School of Fine Arts at the Arts Schools Network Conference in San Diego this October! Join us October 20–22 as we recognize exemplary schools and celebrate the educators and students advancing arts education across the nation. 
 
Learn more and join us: www.asnconference.org

08/17/2026

As we begin the 2026–27 school year, I want to extend a warm welcome and heartfelt wishes to educators, school leaders, teaching artists, and students across the Arts Schools Network.

A new school year is always a time of possibility. It's a chance to begin again, set new goals, welcome new students and colleagues, and build spaces for creativity and discovery to flourish.

We also know that the excitement of a new year comes with an extraordinary amount of hard work. Behind every first day are countless hours of planning, preparing, collaborating, problem-solving, and dreaming about what is possible for our students. To everyone who has been working behind the scenes to make this new beginning possible: thank you.

The arts have a unique power to bring people together, inspire curiosity, build confidence, and help young people discover their own voices. As an arts school community, we are grateful for the passion and dedication that you bring to this work every day.

On behalf of the Arts Schools Network Board and team, I wish you a joyful, inspiring, and successful 2026–27 school year. May this year bring new ideas, meaningful connections, creative breakthroughs, and many moments that remind us why the arts (and the people who champion them!) matter so deeply.

Here’s to a wonderful new year!

Photo credit: Alabama School of Fine Arts