Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Invites ArtsQuest as Arts in Education Partner

Photo by Chris Stubbe

Initiatives to focus on veterans, marginalized communities, older citizens, students and more

BETHLEHEM, PA—Bolstering an already-robust education program, ArtsQuest has accepted the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts’ (PCA) invitation to be their Arts in Education (AIE) partner for the region covering Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon, Monroe and part of Pike counties, effective immediately. ArtsQuest will now work on a wide range of projects geared to expand the impact of arts learning in the region, allowing for even deeper relationships with students while expanding the geographic reach of the nationally-renowned non-profit and kickstarting programs geared to bring the arts to veterans, seniors and marginalized communities.

“We are absolutely honored to partner with the PCA,” said Lisa Harms, ArtsQuest’s Senior Director of Visual Arts and Education, who has overseen an Education program that currently serves 5,000 students annually and has grown 165% in the past four years. “To be an AIE partner further validates the work we’ve done in classrooms throughout the Lehigh Valley while helping us to reach into cities and towns we haven’t yet been in. To get to build on the trajectory of our Education programs with the backing of the PCA is truly exciting; we’re hard at work to get these programs off the ground and look forward to announcing them in the near future.”

Since accepting the PCA’s invitation, ArtsQuest has started the process of launching various AIE programs in the region, including, but not limited to:

• Artist Residencies in all counties, which can be held in schools, senior centers or with organizations that serve marginalized communities.

• Poetry Out Loud, a national arts education program that encourages the study of great poetry by offering free educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition for high school students across the country.

• Creative Aging, which will expand the existing senior-specific programs ArtsQuest has built over the years.

• Veterans Initiative, which will focus on having specifically trained instructors and will further customize ArtsQuest’s existing programming geared towards those who have served our country.

• Art Sparks, a public art program that will further expand ArtsQuest’s status as a community leader in this field.

ArtsQuest will start announcing programs and residencies under the AIE banner in the coming weeks, with the goal of being able to start them in the spring of 2021. Interested teaching artists, schools and partner organizations are encouraged to contact Lisa Harms at lharms@artsquest.org to find out more about how they can be a part of these programs.