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You are on the right track! Arts integration is powerful. It’s not just an add-on. It is a research-informed instructional approach that intentionally connects an art form with another subject area, meeting standards in both disciplines. Students engage in creative processes (exploring, experimenting, and constructing meaning) rather than simply following directions. Learning is mutually reinforced: deeper understanding in science, literacy, or social studies enhances artistic expression, and artistic practice strengthens academic comprehension.

Ohio Arts Council Capacity and Teach Arts Ohio Grants provide a timely opportunity for schools and districts to invest in consulting and strategic planning that strengthens arts integration across curriculum and culture. These grants support capacity building, making it possible to bring in experienced leadership to guide thoughtful, sustainable change.

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Examples of Arts Integration include using dance to model scientific transformation, creating abstract art to explore geometry, or applying drama to analyze character and conflict in literature. When done well, arts integration fosters creativity, imagination, and critical thinking. It supports diverse learners by offering multiple ways to access and demonstrate knowledge. It increases engagement and enjoyment while developing 21st-century skills such as innovation and problem-solving. Unlike traditional models, the arts are central to learning, not supplemental.

Successful integration, however, requires intentional planning.

This is where Kimberly Jarvis provides distinct value. With 25 years of arts integration classroom experience, Kimberly understands instructional realities while remaining deeply engaged with current research and emerging practices. Her strategic consulting process begins with shared values. Are they reflected in your structure, strategy, and systems? If not, what needs to change? From there, she examines hard elements such as organizational design, scheduling, curriculum frameworks, and assessment practices. She then turns to soft elements like culture, leadership, professional development, and communication. This ensures the values of your school support the desired outcomes. This alignment process is iterative and deliberate. Adjustments are made, impacts analyzed, and systems refined until all components work together. The result is stronger performance and clearer direction.

Administrators often express concern about how arts integration fits within established classroom management approaches. Kimberly respects the diversity of administrative philosophies. Whether a district emphasizes assertive discipline, relationship-based practices, social learning, student empowerment, or blends authoritative leadership with collaborative culture, arts integration complements these frameworks. When implemented properly, it does not interfere with management structures. Instead, it enhances engagement, strengthens student responsibility, and supports proactive classroom environments.

Kimberly also recognizes varying management styles, from highly structured to more flexible approaches. Her work honors tradition while supporting modern practices, ensuring arts integration aligns with existing policies, accountability systems, and community expectations.

Teaching artists are included throughout this process. Kimberly builds bridges between educators and creative professionals, helping both groups understand standards, instructional goals, and classroom realities. This shared understanding leads to stronger partnerships and more effective programming.

Equally important, Kimberly values community stakeholders. She collaborates with administrators, teachers, artists, families, and local partners to create strategies that reflect each school’s unique context.

Ohio Arts Council Capacity Grants can fund consulting and strategic planning, making this work accessible. These grants provide a practical pathway to develop sustainable arts integration grounded in clear values, aligned systems, and real-world classroom experience.

Begin with the grant. Build with intention. End with a cohesive strategy that strengthens learning, honors your community, and embeds the arts at the heart of education.

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A parent shared this with me recently:

“My child is doing great in school, but the moment something goes wrong, he completely falls apart.”

I hear this often. And it points to a deeper question many families and educators are carrying right now:

Will our children be ready for life’s challenges?

Not just tests or grades—but uncertainty. Change. Disappointment. The moments that don’t come with instructions.

In arts-integrated classrooms, we see this play out every day. A dance doesn’t go as planned. A drawing doesn’t match the vision. A group drama scene falls apart. These are small moments, but they mirror real life. And they become powerful teaching opportunities.

So many students are capable, motivated, and bright; yet unravel when plans change, or they hear “no.” What’s missing isn’t intelligence.

It’s guided practice.

Arts integration creates space for children to rehearse life skills in meaningful ways. Through movement, visual art, storytelling, and music, students learn to pause, reflect, problem-solve, and try again. They experience setbacks safely. They adapt. They rebuild.

That’s exactly what Arts Integration supports.

Through our Forward Motion Framework, children practice:

✔️ Emotional intelligence — naming and managing big feelings
✔️ Growth mindset — learning from mistakes
✔️ Resilience — bouncing back after disappointment
✔️ Adaptability — adjusting when things change
✔️ Confidence — trusting themselves through challenge

These aren’t abstract concepts. They come alive through creative, hands-on experiences that connect learning to real moments—at home, in classrooms, and during transitions.

At Arts+More, we believe the arts give children a rehearsal space for life.

Preparing kids isn’t about pushing harder. It’s about giving them inner tools they can carry forward.

Because resilience, creativity, and confidence grow best when practiced.