Lived experiences: Arts policy at the street level in the New York City Department of Education

Abstract

This article traces the ways in which arts education funding and policy may be implemented and realized through different roles in a large urban school system, from policy makers to the ground level within the New York City Department of Education. Those who engage with arts policy at the ground level such as teachers and administrators experience and understand the implementation in their daily practice differently depending on their role, from a citywide view of programs to a more day-to-day view with children in a classroom. To examine some of the citywide arts policies, namely in music, and their impact in the New York City public schools, I solicited the voices and lived experiences of a citywide arts director, a middle school music teacher, and a teaching artist with a cultural organization. This article describes the privileges, challenges, and opportunities that policy implementations may provide for access to arts education and offers specific ideas for policy and practice implications within individual schools and citywide.