Educating Broadway: Making Arts-in-Education a Priority on the Great White Way

Educating Broadway: Making Arts-in-Education a Priority on the Great White Way is an examination of the role that arts-in-education can play in the commercial world of Broadway. Arts-in-education has been a developing field since the founding of the Lincoln Center Institute, and many not-for-profit cultural institutions have since adapted it as a part of their mission statements. These organizations understand the value of such programs for the students involved and the potential results that exposing students to the arts may have on cultivating future patrons. The commercial arts, namely Broadway, have financial obligations that make executing such programs difficult without becoming a liability or limiting potential student involvement by pricing participants out of the experience. Educating Broadway presents a justification for why Broadway should be more concerned with arts-in-education initiatives, which also have proven long-term effects that would appeal to Broadway: building a larger, more diverse local audience. Through understanding the history of arts-in-education in New York City and profiling numerous organizations that are currently offering these arts programs, a system is established for a Broadway-based arts-in-education model that recognizes the financial realities of the commercial market while adhering to the guiding characteristics of quality arts-in-education.