• Art Start -- arts-based pre-literacy program;
• Arts Immersion – arts-integrated program for grades K-4;
• Picture Prompt -- 3rd grade curriculum designed to increase literacy skills.

Arts-integration projects are multi-layered and complex—some programs take place at the arts center or museum, some programs take place at the school(s), additionally teachers receive professional development to bring new arts skills back into the classroom, and new curriculum is written with the assistance of teachers, art education staff, and teaching artists to further infuse the arts throughout the school.

Studies have shown the many positive effects of an arts-rich school environment on both students and teachers, such as higher job satisfaction for teachers, enhanced critical thinking and problem solving skills in students, along with the ability to make stronger, meaningful connections between academic disciplines, the outside world, and to everyday life. School communities are engaged and involved both inside and outside of the classroom. Research has also revealed the positive impact that a strong arts curriculum has on learning in other academic subjects, attitudes, and behaviors among pre-school, general K-12, and at-risk students. The act of artistic creation is critical to students’ biological, emotional, and cognitive development.

Third Space: When Learning Matters studied the effect of an arts-centered curriculum on school improvement by looking at ten schools with economically disadvantaged students. The power of the arts in these schools was transformative: in schools with strong arts climates, both teachers and students benefit -- they have more invested and they are more invested.

RCCA’s arts-centered curriculum projects are in varying stages of growth: ArtsImmersion and ArtStart will have finished their second year in June 2008, Picture Prompt will just have completed its first year.

These projects have enjoyed successful funding sources, such as the NJ State Council on the Arts’ Arts Education Special Initiative Grant (AESI) grants (2006-08) for the ArtStart program; Picture Prompt by a grant from the IMLS; ArtsImmersion by the US Department of Education in partnership with Camden County Educational Technology Center. The Community & Artists Programs Manager position was added (2004); RCCA began researching a comprehensive roster from which to select artists for all projects. RCCA added an Arts Documentation Manager (2005); documentary film clips of the projects will be shown.