Artists in Schools is a partnership between professional teaching artists, United Arts, and Wake County schools. The program places teaching artists in public, private, and charter schools in Wake County, North Carolina. These artists and arts organizations work as creative educational resources with faculty, students, and school volunteers to implement curriculum-based arts in education programs.

Eligibility: Individual artists, ensembles, and arts organizations are eligible to apply. Artists must:

• Have either a BA or BFA in theatre, dance, music, or visual arts OR the equivalent in training or experience; Writers must have a college degree and evidence of professional writing experience
• Be active in a professional community and regularly perform/exhibit/publish in their discipline
• Demonstrate ability and skills to work in an educational setting with K–12 students
• Be an adult; have only adult group members
• Returning artists must have satisfactory evaluations from past participation in Artists in Schools

Categories: Applications are accepted in one of four categories: 

• Performance
• Five Day Writer Residency
• Workshop/Residency
• Workshop/Residency designed for Students with Disabilities

Disciplines: Programs should qualify in one or more of the following disciplines:

• Dance
• Literary
• Music
• Storytelling
• Theatre
• Visual Arts

Requirements: Programs must meet certain requirements to be accepted. To be successful, performances, workshops, or residencies must: 

• be of high artistic merit
• reflect the artist’s professional training and experience
• place primary emphasis on teaching students about or through an arts discipline
• offer more than what a classroom/arts teacher could provide
• be appropriate for students in the grade levels that participate
• support educational guidelines as set forth in the Common Core curriculum and North Carolina Essential Standards. These curriculum standards can be found at http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/curriculum/
• have supplementary educational materials (study guides, teacher guides, lesson plans, etc.) that will be provided to the school before the program
• occur on school premises (occasional online options may be approved)
• occur during a school’s regular hours
• have set rates for ALL related expenses (either folded into fee or listed), including travel, food, lodging and supplies

Submissions: Teaching artists who have programs that fit the above criteria should complete the following electronic form and upload all required materials. Incomplete submissions will not move forward in the application process.

Fee: An annual application fee of $45.00 will be collected at the time of submission. This is a flat fee regardless of the number of applications submitted. After submitting the first application, an applicant will be prompted to make payment either online or by submitting a check made payable to United Arts Council. Application fees are not refundable.

Deadline: Tuesday, April 30, 2024 (before midnight)

Review Process: A selection panel reviews all new programs to assess the applicant’s artistic expertise and proficiency in leading an educational program in a school setting.

Notification: Notification of application status will be provided in June.

Additional Note: Additional Note: This online application will auto-save every 10 seconds. However, if you plan on signing out and would like to continue working on your application at a later time, we recommend hitting "Save Draft" at the bottom.
A red "*" next to a question means that it is required. If a required question is left blank, the form will not submit.