Improving arts access through multisector collaborations.

Schools in the United States have encountered substantial cuts to arts education, prompting them to partner with arts organizations to provide arts learning opportunities. Arts education advocates see potential benefits and drawbacks to these arrangements. While they can provide schools with valuable resources, such arrangements could further reduce the status and oversight of the arts in schools by outsourcing to external providers. One strategy that may provide benefits without these potential drawbacks is the facilitation of partnerships through multisector collaborations. From our research in Houston, we find that multisector collaborations can be effective at improving student arts access through partnerships that address schools' needs, while also helping schools secure arts resources and facilitating efforts that are more mutually beneficial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]