Houston ISD believes that every student deserves an Arts-Rich Education.

(Click here for more information about the beliefs and principles that underpin our work.)

Arts-Rich Education for All

The HISD Fine Arts Department supports the use of the arts as a core component in educating the Whole Child, including every student in HISD, regardless of their circumstances.  Each fine arts discipline provides tools for teachers to engage their students, activate creative minds, and build curricular connections between the classroom and the world around them.  We believe that the fine arts should not be viewed as an ancillary or extra-curricular, as this viewpoint only limits our ability to create an expansive and dynamic learning environment through the arts.

An Arts-Rich Education includes three components, where the students learn how to create within an art form (Arts Instruction), learn how the arts connect all learning (Arts Integration), and experience the performing and visual arts by their peers and professionals (Arts Experiences):

An Arts-Rich Education includes all four fine arts disciplines (Dance, Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts):

An Arts-Rich Education is supported by an Arts-Rich Ecosystem that includes sixconstituencies, each with a unique and important role to ensure that the arts drive student learning:

• Fine Arts Teachers
• Foundation Teachers
• Teaching Artists and Arts Organizations
• Campus Leaders
• District Leaders
• Families and the Community

And an Arts-Rich Education extends to every student at every level, early childhood through graduation, throughout every Houston neighborhood.

Click here for a document for more-detailed information on Arts-Rich Education.