Research Catalog

Title

Dancers/Artists in the Schools records, 1974-1988.

Supplementary Content

Finding Aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Day, Jan.
• Reinhart, Charles.
• Woodbury, Joan J., 1927-
• Charles Reinhart Management.
• Dancer's Inc. (Atlanta, Ga.)
• National Endowment for the Arts. Artists-in-Schools Program.

Description

2 linear feet (5 boxes)

Summary

The Dancers/Artists in the Schools records primarily consist of the administrative and financial records of Dancer's Inc., a not-for-profit organization that was responsible for coordinating the activities of participants in the Artist-in-Schools (later Artists-in-Education) program.

Subject

• Day, Jan > Corrrespondence
• Woodbury, Joan J., 1927- > Corrrespondence
• Dancer's Inc. (Atlanta, Ga.)
• Artists as teachers
• Arts > Scholarships, fellowships, etc. > United States
• Dance > Economic aspects
• Dance > Study and teaching
• Federal aid to the performing arts > United States

Genre/Form

• Correspondence.
• Directories.
• Grant proposals.
• Minutes.
• Newsletters.

Source (note)

• Day, John

Biography (note)

• Begun as a pilot project in 1971, the dance component of the Artists-in-Schools (AIS) program, initially sponsored and administered at a national level by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), funded residencies for dance companies and dance movement specialists at schools through a variety of programs geared toward kindergarten through high school students.

Indexes/Finding Aids (note)

• Collection guide available in repository and on internet.

Call Number

(S) *MGZMD 177

OCLC

123237651

Title

Dancers/Artists in the Schools records, 1974-1988.

Biography

Begun as a pilot project in 1971, the dance component of the Artists-in-Schools (AIS) program, initially sponsored and administered at a national level by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), funded residencies for dance companies and dance movement specialists at schools through a variety of programs geared toward kindergarten through high school students. The AIS program, drawing on the success of an earlier visual artists-in-residence project, received $900,000 from the U.S. Office of Education in 1970, which enabled more than 300 artists to undertake residencies at elementary and secondary schools in thirty-one states. Charles Reinhart developed the dance component of the Artists-in-Schools program and served as its National Coordinator from 1970-1981. Residencies were carefully planned; teachers and visiting dancers had well-defined roles, as outlined by the NEA. Summer workshops brought dancers, teachers, and administrators together to refine and expand the scope of the program. Reinhart's company, Charles Reinhart Management of New York, served as the liaison between the dancers and the NEA, largely handling financial matters. It also was responsible for producing and disseminating publications, including a newsletter (called FYI) and a membership directory. By 1974, the Artists-in-Schools Program had grown to 1,750 artists working in schools in every state and special jurisdiction. In order to maintain standards and lobby for continued funding, the dancers created an Artists Advisory Committee in June 1976. Originally composed of three dance company artistic directors (Don Redlich, Bella Lewitsky, and Joan Woodbury/Shirley Ririe) and three dance movement specialists (Connie Jo Hepworth, Crystal Mann, and Susan Cambigue), the purpose of the committee was to work directly with Reinhart and to give artistic input to management during the interim between summer workshops. By 1980, the AIS program had evolved into the Artists-in-Education (AIE) program, in which authority was ceded to the individual states that wished to participate (concurrently, Charles Reinhart Management would lose its contract to manage the program). Federal grants now were to be administered to individual state arts agencies to fund the school residencies. In the wake of these events, the Artists Advisory Committee incorporated as Dancer's Inc., a non-profit organization, whose mission was to continue to advocate for dancers in the AIE program and to promote and retain the standards of the preceding years. The Reagan administration brought enormous budget cuts to federal funding for the arts. By 1985, the scope of the AIE program once again had shifted and its name soon was revised to Arts in Education; its primary objective now became a more general encouragement of arts education as a basic part of the curriculum. As membership in Dancer's Inc., as well as funding opportunities continued to decline, the board voted to dissolve the group in 1985; the legal dissolution of the organization was completed in 1988.

Indexes

Collection guide available in repository and on internet.

Connect to:

Request Access to Special Collections (Dance Division) material

Finding Aid

Added Author

Day, Jan.

Reinhart, Charles.

Woodbury, Joan J., 1927-

Charles Reinhart Management.

Dancer's Inc. (Atlanta, Ga.)

National Endowment for the Arts. Artists-in-Schools Program.

Research Call Number

(S) *MGZMD 177