the arts matter in afterschool community Youth Arts and out-of-School Time - by Lori L. Hager

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Pentious

The paper examines how the afterschool community has long embraced arts as part of youth services during nonschool hours, yet notes that arts outside school has received less comprehensive research and support. It distinguishes arts-in-education from broader arts learning and community youth arts partnerships between arts and non-arts organizations. It calls for more formal, research-based alliances linking arts learning and afterschool fields, highlighting historical development and evidence-based “best practices.”

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

Overview

Arts outside school and need for evidence

Key Concepts

Arts learning vs arts-in-education

Community-based youth organizations and community youth arts

Author Background

Lori L. Hager’s experience and research focus

Historical Perspective

Progressive Movement and early partnerships

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and expansion efforts

the arts matter in afterschool community Youth Arts and out-of-School Time by Lori L. Hager The afterschool community has long embraced the arts as part of the constellation of services offered to youth during nonschool hours. However, there has been much less comprehensive research in, and support for, the arts outside of school. Despite the fact that the United States has many local, regional, and state examples of excellent partnerships between the arts and afterschool, as well as model community-based afterschool youth arts programs, in the arts learning field these partnerships and programs are only beginning to foster evidencebased research and disseminate “best practices.” This paper calls attention to community youth arts in order to address the need for more formal and researchbased alliances between the arts learning and afterschool fields. In this paper, arts learning is a broad term that incorporates learning in and through the arts both during and after school. Arts-in-education takes place during school hours and has academic goals. Community-based youth organizations (CYOs) focus on serving youth locally; many CYOs have the arts as central parts of their missions. Community youth arts (CYA) refers specifically to partnerships between arts and non-arts organizations that offer OST youth arts activities. One critical distinction is between arts-in-education , which takes place in school, and the broader arts learning, which can incorporate a variety of arts activities; serve youth both in and outside of school; and have a range of goals including academic support, community building, and social development. LOri L. HAGEr, Ph. D., has over 30 years’ experience in the community arts field. She was professionally trained as an artist-in-theschools, as an actor, and as an arts manager. She has directed and evaluated community youth arts programs, and her research focuses on the history, policies, and programs of community youth arts development. She is now faculty in Arts and Administration at the University of Oregon, where she teaches graduate courses and conducts research in arts education policy and practice, community youth arts, and community arts development. She serves as associate director of community arts for the Center for Community Arts and Cultural Policy and is on the founding advisory board of the Community Arts Convening and Research Project. SPriNGTiME (fLOWEr) focuses on something colorful. OUr WOrLD iN PiCTUrES Historical Perspective (Bedard, 1989; Comer, 1946) . During the 1950s, as comIn the U.S. , connections among youth, arts, and com- munity and recreation centers expanded steadily, univermunity are rooted in the Progressive Movement at the sities and community organizations increasingly relied turn of the 20th century (Addams, 1910; Ewell, 2000; on one another to produce children’s arts activities (Ewell, Jackson, 2000) . In Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, and 2000; Gard, 1955, 1975; McCaslin, 1997) . other major urban areas, civic-minded philanthropists The establishment of the National Endowment for led reform efforts in child labor, family health, education, the Arts (NEA) in 1965 provided federal recognition for welfare, and recreation. Recognizing the importance of arts in communities and schools. Arts-in-education was building healthy minds and bodies, Progressives helped formally established through partnerships between the to revolutionize city planning by advocating for public NEA and the (then) U.S. Office of Education. Investments spaces, including playgrounds where children and neigh- were made toward arts-in-education research and probors could gather as well as community centers where gram development. For example, Harvard’s Project Zero the urban poor and recently ar- received early research funding, rivtoedAimmerimigcanrantsurbacnouldlife ac(Aclimateddams, early distinctions a(NErtsAe, 1d9u67cati)oanndtihsrsotuilglhcriticthealrteo- 1910; Blood, 1996;

FAQs

What does the paper say about arts in afterschool programs versus in-school arts?

The paper argues that the afterschool community has embraced the arts, but comprehensive research and support for arts outside school have been limited compared with arts-in-education.

How does the paper distinguish arts learning from arts-in-education?

Arts-in-education takes place during school hours with academic goals, while arts learning is broader and can include activities inside and outside school with goals such as community building and social development.

Why does the paper call for more formal research-based alliances?

It emphasizes the need to foster evidence-based research and disseminate “best practices” by strengthening partnerships between arts learning and afterschool fields.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Pentious