As a lover of all things art and culture and an amateur painter of Madhubani art form, when an evaluation opportunity to work with the arts came knocking, I simply couldn’t pass it up! Since 2017, MNA has been working with Arts Every Day (AED), a Baltimore-based non-profit arts advocacy organization on their NEA-funded planning grant to improve equity and access in the arts for all the City Schools students. Known as the Baltimore Arts Education Initiative (BAEI), we have been actively engaged in a series of stakeholder meetings with other arts advocacy groups, visual and performing artists, educators, students, community members and policymakers, including the Mayor’s office and the City Schools leadership, to help develop a strategic plan for an equitable distribution of arts teaching and learning in ALL the schools. One year on, the strategic plan is complete and is awaiting approval and an implementation in the coming school year. Our evaluation report was completed a few days ago.
