Artists Reaching Classrooms 
Artists Reaching Classrooms (ARC) is the proud recipient of the 2009 Scripps-Corbett Special Award for Art Education.
ARC, a program of the Taft Museum of Art in partnership with the Pendleton Art Center, offers these experiences to high school students with a significant interest in art:
- Interaction with professional artists
- Visits to artists' studios
- Examination of the relationship among artists, art, and society
- Assessment of their own art in light of working artists' methods and techniques
- Exploration of the Taft Museum of Art as a resource for artists
- Participation in a professionally organized art exhibition
The annual Artists Reaching Classrooms Student Art Exhibition displays exceptional art in a variety of media by high school students participating in the ARC program.
Awards and honors are presented to selected students by the Docents of the Taft Museum of Art, the Art Academy of Cincinnati, and the Office of the First Congressional District.
ARC Sponsors
Docents of the Taft Museum of Art
KnowledgeWorks Foundation
Bus Services Sponsor
Fine Arts Fund Partner
The Kroger Co.
Additional support for education programs is provided by Marvin and Betsy Schwartz Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation.
About the ARC Program
The Taft Museum of Art announces the Artists Reaching Classrooms program (ARC), a great way to enrich your curriculum and expand your students’ experience of the arts. All aspects of the program, including buses for field trips, are offered to participating schools free of charge.
ARC immerses high school art students in Cincinnati’s visual arts community and exposes them to careers in the arts. Professional artists visit classrooms to talk with the students about both the creative and practical aspects of a career in art. The students also visit an artist’s studio, such as a painter’s atelier, glassworks or printing press.
Each class makes two trips to the Taft Museum of Art. Students are expected to complete a research project on an object from the Museum’s collection, describing its history and significance, and explaining why the artwork has personal appeal. Each classroom receives a set of Museum catalogues.
Students are asked to make artworks in response to the ARC experience and write artists’ statements demonstrating what they have learned. The program culminates in a professionally organized exhibition of selected students’ artwork. $11,400 in scholarships and prizes were awarded to student exhibitors in 2009; additional students were able to sell their work to private buyers.
Applications are being accepted for the 2010-11 school year. In order to participate, a teacher must:
- Teach a full-year high school art class with 15 or more students available to participate
- Teach at a school within a 40-minute drive of downtown Cincinnati
- Have flexibility to accommodate 4 classroom visits and two field trips
- Be able to commit yourself to 5 years’ participation, including a yearly planning meeting
