Using Cultural-Regional Arts Scenes to Frame and Understand Out-Of-School Time Arts Programs - Working Paper No. 2023-2 - March 2023

Oct 15, 2026

A wealth of research documents positive outcomes from arts learning, yet youth access to arts education has become markedly more inequitable over the past three decades. This working paper reports a critical qualitative study of out-of-school time (OST) arts organizations across the United States. Community youth arts leaders, teaching artists, and participants describe leading ideas and practices, emphasizing how OST arts work can center cultural, historical, and geographic resources, including for BIPOC, low-income, and LGBTQIA+ youth.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages39

Reading Time1 h 38 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Study purpose and research questions

Theoretical framework and learning outcomes

Practices across education and out-of-school time

Cultural-regional scenes and case study examples

Implications for researchers and practitioners

Using Cultural-Regional Arts Scenes to Frame and Understand Out-Of-School Time Arts Programs WCER Working Paper No. 2023-2 March 2023 1Erica Halverson, 2Caitlin Martin, 1Jalessa Bryant, 3Katherine Norman, 1Caleb Probst, 1Stephanie Richards, 1Kailea Saplan, 1Andy Stoiber, and 1Jonathan Tunstall, 4in collaboration with community artists and artistleaders across the United States and Indigenous Nations Wisconsin Center for Education Research University of Wisconsin–Madison [erica.halverson@wisc.edu](erica.halverson@wisc.edu) 1School of Education, Department of Curriculum and Instruction 2Independent researcher/consultant 3Utah Shakespeare Festival 4See Appendix 1 for list of collaborators Key words: Arts education, Community arts, Informal education, Out-of-school time, Youth arts, Youth work Suggested citation: Halverson, E., Martin, C., Bryant, J., Norman, K., Probst, C., Richards, S., Saplan, K., Stoiber, A., & Tunstall, J. (2023). Using cultural-regional arts scenes to frame and understand out-of-school time arts programs. (WCER Working Paper No. 2023-2). University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin Center for Education Research. © 2023 by Erica Halverson, Caitlin Martin, Jalessa Bryant, Katherine Norman, Caleb Probst, Stephanie Richards, Kailea Saplan, Andy Stoiber, and Jonathan Tunstall. All rights reserved. This work was funded by a grant from the Wallace Foundation. Any opinions, findings, or conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Wallace Foundation, WCER, or cooperating institutions. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for noncommercial purposes by any means, provided that the above copyright notice appears on all copies. WCER working papers are available at [https://wcer.wisc.edu/publications/working-papers](https://wcer.wisc.edu/publications/working-papers) Using Cultural-Regional Arts Scenes to Frame and Understand Out-Of-School Time Arts Programs Erica Halverson, Caitlin Martin, Jalessa Bryant, Katherine Norman, Caleb Probst, Stephanie Richards, Kailea Saplan, Andy Stoiber, and Jonathan Tunstall Abstract A wealth of literature shows positive outcomes and experiences from arts learning, yet youth access to arts education has become significantly more inequitable over the past 30 years. Alongside the growing discourse around arts learning and equity issues, there is a recognized and persistent need for more research. We conducted a critical, qualitative study of out-of-school time (OST) arts organizations across the United States. Our primary research questions were: (1) How do community youth arts organizational leaders, teaching artists, and participants describe the leading ideas and practices in OST youth arts programming? (2) How can OST youth arts work center the cultural, historical, and geographic resources that artists and arts organizations bring to arts programming? We first developed a theoretical framework for understanding arts practices in education and summarize key learning outcomes associated with youth participation in the arts. We then talked with OST arts education experts across the United States to understand how their programs support and center youth in arts learning, particularly Black youth, Indigenous youth, and youth of color (BIPOC youth), youth from low-income backgrounds, and LGBTQIA+ youth. This report offers the concept of “cultural-regional scenes”to describe the critical, qualitative case studies we developed of OST youth arts practice. We describe four unique cultural-regional scenes—the Urban Midwest, the Bay Area, Texas-Mexico Border Towns, and the Indigenous Southwest—and provide examples of youth arts practice in each scene. We conclude with ideas that stretch across scenes and suggest that researchers and practitioners can take up this approach in the study of OST youth arts programs. Using Cultural-Regional Arts Scenes to Frame and Understand Out-Of-School Ti

FAQs

What problem does the study address regarding arts education access?

The study addresses growing and persistent inequities in youth access to arts education over the past 30 years, alongside calls for more research on arts learning and equity.

What research questions guide the study of OST arts organizations?

The study asks how community youth arts organizational leaders, teaching artists, and participants describe leading ideas and practices in OST youth arts programming, and how OST youth arts work can center artists’ and arts organizations’ cultural, historical, and geographic resources.

What are the key learning elements or frameworks used to understand OST arts practice?

The paper describes a theoretical framework involving creating representations, exploring identity, practicing creativity, and collaborating as collective learning outcomes, and it outlines central practices of arts-based teaching and learning.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by นรินทร์