Founded in 1937, the National Guild is the service organization for a diverse constituency of nearly 600 non profit, community-based institutions which offer access to sequential arts instruction for people of all ages mostly after school and on weekends. Within this overall constituency 310 schools, operating in 356 communities, are currently members of the Guild.
The central mission of these schools is to provide high quality arts instruction in the visual, literary and performing arts to all persons, regardless of age, race, religion, aptitude or ability to pay.

Commitment to quality and open access for all is a core requirement of Guild membership as is the expectation that all students will be taught by qualified, practicing artists. These schools serve over 500,000 students through regular weekly instruction and tens of thousands more through exposure in a multitude of arts activities. Their annual aggregate budget is more than $200 million.

    MISSION
  • To foster and promote broad access to high quality arts education designed to meet community needs.

    PURPOSES
  • To strengthen the capability of member organizations to achieve their missions.
  • To identify and promote best practices.
  • To bring together organizations and individuals to share experiences, ideas and information.
  • To provide a national voice for community arts education.

The Guild is the only national service organization for the field. Its services are not duplicated by any other organization. For more additional information on the National Guild and its services please visit www.nationalguild.org.
PROGRAMS

Membership: The Guild currently represents 310 community schools of the arts which serve over 500,000 students in 44 states. Of those institutions, the majority are SCHOOLS that are CERTIFIED MEMBERS of the Guild: they are diverse in their age, size, structure, finances and programs and may be variously described as community arts schools, music conservatories, summer arts schools, or as community arts divisions of larger umbrella organizations such as colleges, universities, orchestras and social service agencies.

Other institutional members are ORGANIZATIONS that have joined as ASSOCIATES because they subscribe to the Guild's mission and philosophy: they generally have a distinct educational component and include arts centers, arts councils, fine arts museums, fine arts academies and the like. For more information, please contact Leslie Jones, Membership Services Coordinator at 212/268-3337, ext. 10 or via e-mail at lesliejones@nationalguild.org.


Partners in Excellence: A national initiative which was developed to identify and study best practices in K-12 arts education partnerships and foster their replication. The project has evolved out of a continuum of inquiry by the National Guild about effective arts education collaborations, beginning with the formation of a special task force in 1990. This was followed by the Repro pilot project from 1992-1994, and then the Linkages with Public Schools symposium in 1996, which was supported by the Annenberg Foundation. Guiding principles developed by that panel forms the philosophical basis for Partners in Excellence. This project is made possible through a major grant from the Josephine Bay Paul and C. Michael Paul Foundation.

When completed, Partners in Excellence will have consisted of four parts:
1. A conference, which was held in New York City on January 19 and 20, 2001
   
2. Publication and dissemination of the conference proceedings
   
3. A training institute for program directors, key staff and administrators at community schools of the arts and other appropriate arts organizations in late 2002.
   
4. Publication of a partnership guidebook in 2004.

For more information, click here!


The MetLife Youth Music Project was developed in collaboration with MetLife Foundation. Through the program, community schools of the arts will make available free, private and group music instruction to middle school children from underserved areas in 10 cities. Instruction will be provided by teaching artists on a weekly basis during non-school hours throughout the year. In 2003 each participating site is receiving a $10,000 grant to fund its activities. Grants will be renewable for an additional two years. Sites are located in the following cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley, CA, Atlanta, Boston, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Providence, Houston.



Pursue the Passion ~ Creativity, Connections, Change was the title for the Guild’s conference in Chicago, November 23-23, 2003. Hosted by Chicago member schools and the Western Great Lakes chapter, the conference drew hundreds of individuals from community arts education organizations from across the country to explore critical issues, share best practices and gain insights from leading experts. Chicago's exciting cultural community was the living backdrop for inspiring keynote speakers, highly relevant workshops, socially rewarding networking events and opportunities to explore the artist within each of us! A pre-conference program featured in-depth workshops on Succession Planning and Facility Projects Planning.

Please visite the National Guild website for news on the 2004 conference in Boston!