School and Community Arts Partnerships in Seattle Public Schools

School and community arts partnerships are valued in Seattle for their power to engage students in a wide variety of arts learning with professional artists, inspiring teachers to integrate the arts into their classrooms and creating bridges between cultural communities and schools.  The Creative Advantage supports expanding arts partnerships in all Seattle schools so that every student and teacher has opportunities to make, experience, create, and learn with Seattle’s amazing and diverse arts community every year.

Arts Partnership Guidelines

Creative Advantage arts partnerships are in-depth, arts-learning opportunities that occur during the school day with partners from The Creative Advantage Community Arts Partner Roster.

Aligned to our Visual & Performing Arts goals, partnerships fall under one of the following categories:

• Teaching artist residencies during the school day that provide integrated arts learning experiences
• Teaching artist residencies during the school day that provide cultural arts learning experiences
• Professional development for staff that focuses on high quality arts integration and culturally responsive teaching

Selecting an Arts Partner

To select a partner go to The Creative Advantage Community Arts Partner Roster.

Funding an Arts Partnership

To ensure that students at all schools have consistent access to engaging arts learning from Seattle’s teaching artists and community arts and culture organizations, The Creative Advantage Funding for arts partnerships comes from Seattle’s Office of Arts & Culture. To ensure that students have consistent access to arts partnerships, The Creative Advantage has two ways for schools to obtain funds:

“Cohort-based funds”

Creative Advantage Schools receive $15,000 for arts partnerships over the first three years of implementation to help them realize their arts vision and goals.

“Arts Sustainability Funds “

Once a Creative Advantage school has spent their initial funds, they are eligible for $3,000–$5,000 annually to support arts partnerships, depending on their equity tier.

Arts Sustainability Funds Application Form for 2026-2027 (link coming Fall 2026)

Contracting and Payment

All partnerships in Seattle Public Schools require a Personal Services Contract to be in place before the partnership begins. Processing Personal Services Contracts takes approximately two weeks.

For information on how to get started, please visit the Community Partnerships Forms and Processes site.

---