Quality arts experiences for Hawaiʻi’s K-12 public and charter school students.
The Artists in the Schools (AITS) Program is under the jurisdiction of the SFCA. AITS arts residency grants provide engaging, creative and fun learning experiences based on the Fine Arts standards for all grade levels, through residencies with qualified trained teaching artists from the Artistic Teaching Partners (ATP) Roster. Many of these teaching artists integrate their art form with other core curriculum areas, such as language arts, math, social studies, and science, meeting both Fine Arts and other core standards.
All state of Hawai‘i public schools and public charter schools, grades K through 12, are eligible to apply for ONE arts residency grant annually. Schools must work in partnership with a teaching artist from the SFCA’s Artistic Teaching Partners Roster to develop the residency. The roster lists qualified trained individual teaching artists and arts organizations. The roster is updated annually before each call for AITS applications. (Download the roster PDF below under “Necessary Materials for Applying”).
A residency consists of a minimum of 5 secondary or 8 elementary sessions by the teaching artist with the same core group of students. The learning experiences must support the Fine Arts Standards from the Department of Education Hawai‘i Content and Performance Standards III. Teaching artists on the Artistic Teaching Partners Roster bring dance, drama/theatre, literary arts, mime, music, puppetry, and visual arts to the classroom in their arts residency.
Schools may apply for either an Artists in the Schools Regular Grant or an Artists in the Schools Art in Public Places Permanent Works of Art Grant.
All Hawai‘i public and public charter schools are eligible to apply.
Schools that have an eligible SFCA Permanent Work of Art (PWA) may apply for an Artists in the Schools Art in Public Places Permanent Works of Art Grant (AITS APP PWA Grant). (Download the PDF below under “Necessary Materials for Applying”). The goal is to increase students’ appreciation of, and engagement with, the permanent works of art at their school. The emphasis for AITS APP PWA arts residencies is on interpreting the PWA by means of the teaching artist’s art form.
The AITS application is completed and submitted in the GO Smart online application system.
AITS is funded with state appropriations from the State of Hawai‘i Legislature, federal funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and private matching funds from the Hawai‘i Community Foundation. In the current 2019-2020 school year, 111 schools received AITS grants to conduct their arts residencies.
Necessary Materials for Applying
Done in partnership with the State of Hawai‘i Department of Education’s video production branch, these videos take you into classrooms and have Artistic Teaching Partners, classroom teachers, school principals, and students explain how the program works and the benefits of the program. See the full album or view individual videos below.
A brief overview of the program. (58 seconds)
A brief overview of the program. (1 minute 14 seconds)
A longer overview of the entire program. (6 minutes 24 seconds)
Waiahole Elementary School, with ATP Chizuko Endo. (4 minutes 13 seconds)
Puohala Elementary School, with ATP Kealoha. (4 minutes 59 seconds)
Aliamanu Elementary School, with ATP Lily Brennick from Honolulu Theatre for Youth. (4 minutes 44 seconds)
Keoneula Elementary School, with ATP Michael Wall. (4 minutes 33 seconds)
King Kekaulike High School, with ATP Beth Marcil. (4 minutes 55 seconds)
Kahakai Elementary School with Gerald Lucena from Donkey Mill Art Center. (5 minutes 8 seconds)
Kawaikini Public Charter School and Kilauea Elementary School with ATP Kumu Mauli Ola Cook. (6 minutes 8 seconds)
