Art in Action, a nonprofit organization dedicated to revitalizing art programs in schools that have lost them, is making a significant impact in California and beyond. Through innovative projects and affordable solutions, Art in Action ensures that art remains an essential part of the educational experience for students. I was recruited to help them create the Art in STEAM project, which places art at the forefront of STEAM (integrated Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) education. This approach not only champions creativity but also encourages students to synthesize and combine essential academic standards across various disciplines, providing a better simulation of real-world practices and more effective and meaningful learning experience for students.

The Challenge: Declining Art Programs in Schools

Many schools across the United States have seen a decline in formal art instruction due to budget cuts and shifting priorities. While some schools manage to incorporate art programs through temporary budget windfalls or half-day contracts, consistent and comprehensive art education is no longer guaranteed. I was particularly surprised, when I moved my work to California to find that nearly all public and charter schools had little to no regular instruction in art. California has a robust set of skills and practices in its state standards for art learning, but surprisingly poor implementation.

Art in Action steps in to fill this gap by offering affordable art programs that parent volunteers or Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) supported by school administrators can affordable purchase and implement with the help of volunteers. This model, while still a far cry from ideal learning experiences like regular art lessons in a dedicated classroom year over year, ensures that students continue to receive quality art education despite financial constraints. The big advantage for Art in STEAM is that administrators were much more eager to support an art curriculum that reinforces skills on state tests. These tests and the time needed to prepare students for them is largely the reason art has been cut from school budgets.

Art in STEAM: An Art-Forward Approach

Traditional STEAM projects often prioritize math and science, with art being relegated to a secondary, often decorative role. However, the Art in STEAM program flips this script by starting with California art standards and building the central project or lesson around them. This art-forward approach ensures that the creative process is central, not peripheral, to the learning experience.

For the Art in STEAM curriculum, projects were designed for kindergarten through middle school students, incorporating meaningful connections to math, science, technology, engineering, and literacy standards. This integration ensures that while students are engaged in creative activities, they are also reinforcing essential academic skills. To create this integrated curriculum, I developed my own tool for mapping out and quickly searching or connecting California and national learning standards across all grade levels from kindergarten through eighth grade. This searchable document allowed for the identification of common themes, skills and topics across different subjects and grade levels. This tool facilitated the creation of much more authentically integrated lessons. 

The STEAM + Literacy Roadmap

One of the key tools that facilitated the creation of integrated STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) and literacy lessons within the Art in STEAM initiative is the STEAM + Literacy Roadmap. This innovative tool is a comprehensive, searchable spreadsheet database that includes all the Common Core national standards in literacy and math, Next Generation Science Standards, technology and engineering standards from the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), and California’s state art standards. Designed to cover each grade level from PreK through 8th grade, the roadmap provides a systematic way to identify and connect standards across different subjects, fostering the development of art-focused lessons that integrate multiple disciplines.

The STEAM + Literacy Roadmap is organized into sheets for each grade level, with columns for the standards of each subject. This layout allows educators to easily search for a topic, skill, or concept that can bridge multiple domains. By facilitating these connections, the roadmap helps educators develop lessons that not only align with educational standards but also encourage students to synthesize information from various subjects in meaningful ways.

For example, consider a lesson designed for middle school students on drawing a realistic indoor scene with a single vanishing point. This exercise, a staple in art education, is directly drawn from the California Art Standards. Using the roadmap, the lesson was developed b searching for relevant standards from other domains using the STEAM roadmap. The lesson began with the art standards supporting drawing in one-point perspective, which inherently involves parallel and intersecting lines, angles, and geometry. By searching the roadmap for terms like “parallel lines,” “intersecting lines,” and “angles,” related math standards were quickly identified. The lesson can then provide students with practical meaningful experiences in use of parallel lines and exploring intersecting lines with complementary and opposite angles. Incorporating these math skills, the lesson provided students with practical applications of geometry, enhancing their understanding through practice, experience and artistic creation.

To further integrate the lesson, the roadmap was used to find relevant literacy standards such as “communicating with peers for understanding” and “using text features.” These standards were then woven into the lesson by having students create a picture dictionary for new students learning the user’s language, based on their one-point perspective drawings, labels and other text fetures commonly found in a picture dictionary. This task required students to write clear, descriptive labels and instructions, reinforcing literacy skills in a practical context, as the final result is a printed picture dictionary compiled by the volunteer teachers for classroom to keep and use when new students or speakers of other languages arrive in their classrooms.

The roadmap’s ability to connect standards across disciplines ensures that each integrated lesson is both meaningful and robust. For example, in the described lesson, students not only improved their drawing skills but also deepened their understanding of geometric principles and enhanced their communication abilities. Each integrated standard was intentionally chosen to provide sufficient practice and reinforcement, avoiding the superficial connections that often plague STEAM lessons.

By leveraging the STEAM + Literacy Roadmap, Art in Action can create lessons that are truly interdisciplinary, offering students a holistic educational experience that values creativity and critical thinking equally. This tool exemplifies how thoughtful integration of standards can transform traditional subjects into engaging, comprehensive learning experiences that prepare students for a multifaceted future.

A key component of the Art in STEAM curriculum is the use of animated videos. These videos, lasting about five to six minutes each, introduce the art lesson and provide a demonstration. After the video, the activity is handed off to an in-class volunteer, such as a parent or retired artist, who is associated with Art in Action. This format ensures that students receive a consistent and high-quality introduction to each lesson, while also allowing for flexibility in the classroom.

Impact and Reception

The Art in STEAM program has been well-received by schools and educators. By integrating art with other core subjects, schools can offer a more balanced and enriching curriculum that meets various educational standards. Principals and teachers appreciate that the time spent on art also helps reinforce skills in other critical areas, making it easier to justify the inclusion of art in the curriculum. Art in Action, through its Art in STEAM project, is making a profound impact on art education by ensuring that creativity is not sidelined in the rush to emphasize STEM subjects. By starting with art and integrating it with math, science, technology, and engineering, the initiative provides students with a well-rounded education that values creativity as much as analytical skills. This innovative approach not only revitalizes art programs in schools but also prepares students for a future where interdisciplinary thinking and creativity are paramount.