NETWORK PARTNERS: INTRODUCTION

FAAE Network Partners bring together a broad cross section of community leaders and members within and outside of the arts and education who share a common interest in arts and arts education. These Network Partners are county-based alliances that build public awareness and partner with their county’s educational leadership to advocate on behalf of arts education in their local schools and communities.

Network Partners seek to:

• Strengthen existing networks of support for arts education in counties across Florida;
• Strengthen the relationship between schools and community cultural resources;
• Identify and act on issues of local concern.

The most effective Network Partners coalitions represent a broad cross-section of the community, including:

• Local arts agency personnel;
• Artists;
• Education personnel from professional arts organizations such as symphonies, theatres, dance troupes, etc.;
• Business professionals;
• Chamber of Commerce representatives;
• Parents;
• Non-arts classroom teachers;
• School Administrators;
• Arts teachers, and
• Other community members.

FAAE works to:

• Strengthen existing networks of support for arts education across Florida;
• Increase the number of networks working on behalf of arts education;
• Strengthen the relationship between schools and community cultural resources;
• Identify and share meaningful strategies being used in Florida to dramatically improve student engagement and learning through the arts.

This year, FAAE has adopted the Enterprise Florida regional configuration for its Florida ACE Coalition Map taking the number of ACE regions from five to eight. This will enable the Coalitions to draw on Enterprise Florida’s wealth of data for comparative purposes and will create greater commonality of interests among those attending regional ACE Coalition meetings. In addition, the Coalitions Committee is being restructured to function as the Council of ACE Coalitions to enhance input from the field.