Special Projects

Executive Director Echo Olander was part of the Louisiana team selected to participate in the Education Leader’s Institute in the summer of 2008. Convened by the National Endowment for the Arts, the institute brought leaders from five states to envision a healthy national educational environment founded on powerful arts education programs.

In the fall of 2008, KID smART coordinated the review of newly developed curriculum guides in four arts disciplines for the Louisiana Department of Education and the Louisiana Division of the Arts.

KID smART is currently working on two projects with the Louisiana Division of the Arts to help support arts education in the state. We are coordinating a statewide survey of the use of the arts in schools throughout the state and surveying national models of exemplary arts education programming to look for trends throughout the state.

KID smART is piloting work at Mary Bethune and the Green Charter School to integrate teaching of the visual arts and the French language. This project is in collaboration with the Consulat Général de France a la Nouvelle-Orléans and is funded by the French American Cultural Exchange.