En Guatemala, un colectivo de jóvenes artistas forma una familia con el cine

Educators are bringing the classroom to the thousands of Mumbai’s children out of school — in school buses, treehouses, and beyond—enabling them to receive a quality education despite their poverty.

Why do schools teach music in a way that turns off so many young people rather than igniting their imagination? A program that taps into students’ passion for pop and rock is revitalizing music education in many schools.

Through the Burbank Senior Artists Colony - a community created by EngAGE - low-income seniors learn how to become artists. The recreational classes hosted by the community keep people feeling phsyically and mentally young, allowing them to focus on recreation instead of financial hardship.

As American classrooms have focused on raising test scores in math and reading, an outgrowth of the federal No Child Left Behind law and interpretations of the new Common Core standards, even the youngest students have been affected, with more formal lessons and less time in sandboxes. Washington and Minnesota are beginning to train teachers around the state on the importance of so-called purposeful play — when teachers subtly guide children to learning goals through games, art and general fun.

Alleys in Seattle were once places of illicit, illegal, and unsanitary activity. The International Sustainability Institute in Seattle began organizing music and art events to bring in people, which, in turn, cleaned-up the crime and garbage. As an urban development strategy, adjacent vacant storefronts re-opened for business and beautification could be seen in new gardens.

Arts education programs in the United States are subjected to cutting for maintaining tight school budgets. Technology sectors in Seattle seek professionals who have been trained in problem solving skills and innovative idea generation. In response, Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture collaborate to promote equity in students’ access to the arts.

Little Kids Rock has helped to revitalize and broaden music education in more than a thousand schools by encouraging children to learn to play popular music, form bands and compose their own songs. Despite a backlash from traditionalists, teaching children to play music they love doesn’t “dumb down” music education—it enriches it.

With arts funding on the cutting board across the country, students can lack motivation to go to school and the creative resources for critical thinking skills. In Brooklyn, Ascend Learning is an inner-city network of public charter schools that offer a rich arts environment to teach Common Core and the student academic performance has surpassed other schools in the neighborhood.

The Live6 area is home to a robust cultural and creative community. And with an increase in development, there's opportunity for artists and institutions to tap into that energy to spur growth.

"Songs in the Key of Free" is a program in a Pennsylvania prison brings together inmates to play music and write songs that they perform inside, while professional musicians also play the songs in venues outside prison. The program is just a year old and is based on a successful theater program in California that cut recidivism rates and helped decrease prison infractions. The founders of "Songs in the Key of Free" are creating an album of the work, but after that, future funding is unclear.