As a new school year begins, educators have a powerful opportunity to nurture individuality and ignite creativity in their students. The arts play a vital role in helping each child discover and express their unique identity, rather than conforming to the crowd.

This back-to-school season, let’s center the arts as a key part of every child’s learning journey. Join us in exploring HOW at PSAE’s Fall Arts Integration Conference—Where Creativity Meets Education: Celebrating 20 Years of Arts Integration, October 27-28, in Greenville, SC!

Equipping Educators. Enriching Classrooms. Empowered by the Arts.

Discover how strong arts integration can transform teaching and learning at Where Creativity Meets Education: Celebrating 20 Years of Arts Integration. Through hands-on workshops and dynamic sessions, you’ll gain practical tools to strengthen arts integration in your school. Don’t miss this chance to connect, create, and elevate your teaching—register today!

Multiply Your Impact—Attend as a School Team

Ready to bring the brainpower of your school team to PSAE’s Fall Arts Integration Conference? Take advantage of our School Team Discount—buy 3 registrations for just $700, a $50 savings for your school! Imagine the impact when a math teacher, an arts teacher, and an instructional coach learn side-by-side, gathering innovative ideas to bring back to your classrooms. Teams must be from the same school, only available for groups of 3, and this special offer is only available through September 1—don’t miss out!

Last year, Kerrie Kish, principal of Fairforest Elementary and 2023 STEAM School of Excellence, wrote a blog about the value of bringing a team to PSAE's Conference.

In this blog celebrating teamwork and the power of collaboration, Principal Kish shares how bringing a team to the PSAE Conference can spark schoolwide growth in arts integration. Check out the Blog below!

Do you know a talented educator, school, or nonprofit that deserves recognition for their work in arts education?

Nominate them for one of our awards!

Instructional coaches—looking to deepen your support for teachers through arts integration? Join an informal community of peers to explore how JOURNEYS: A Guidebook in Arts Integration can enhance your PLC planning and coaching practices. Whether you’re new to the guidebook or already using it, this is a great opportunity to share ideas, ask questions, and learn alongside other coaches committed to creative, student-centered instruction. Email PSAE’s Executive Director to learn more and get connected!

Palmetto State Arts Education (PSAE) is a network of professionals connecting all educators in the advancement of student learning in and through the arts.

When can I apply?

• This is a rolling grant, apply NOW through February 2026

If there are some questions…

• Check out our Introduction to SAS video! 
• Register to attend the applicant coaching call on Wednesday August 14th from 3:30 - 4:30
• Contact Arts Learning Coordinator Mikayla Moore

South Carolina Arts Alliance

Greetings from the South Carolina Arts Alliance!

Educators are some of our most important arts advocates, because they see first hand the incredible impact that arts education has on students and communities. As you head back to school in the coming weeks, I hope you will consider elevating and sharing that impact throughout the year. We’ve got some ideas for you in our Digital Advocacy Toolkit for Educators!

Please also mark your calendar for some other important opportunities to take direct action in support of the arts:

• September 7-13: National Arts in Education Week
• February 9-13: SC Arts Advocacy Week
• February 11-13: SC Arts Day (Summit + State House Day)

We’ll be delivering lots of content as usual, so stay tuned for more!

Legislative Update

The South Carolina Budget finished this year with a $1.5 million increase to statewide arts funding. Legislators will return to Columbia in January.

Earlier this month in Washington, the House Appropriations Committee advanced a budget bill that reduced funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities by 35% to $135M each. This is still awaiting a vote by the full House.

In response, we launched a campaign asking advocates to contact their legislators and urge them to support level funding for the agencies. In less than two weeks, our advocates wrote nearly 150 emails to Congress!

Then, last week, the Senate Interior Subcommittee completed a markup of their budget bill, and included level funding of $207M for each agency. 

While the budget process is not yet finished, this was a powerful lesson in the power of our collective voice. I encourage you to become a FREE member of the SCAA to be the first to know about key updates, and check out all of the free advocacy resources on our website, scartsalliance.com/advocacy.

Jeff Robinson

Executive Director

SC Arts Alliance

Email Jeff

We also just finished up our second summer of Coastal Creatives programming at Horry-Georgetown Technical College Conway campus. We provided arts collaborative programming for students in rising 8th-10th grades. Students focused on the following Profile Competencies: Express Ideas and Build Networks. We are excited to continue this programming for the 2025-2026 school year with Saturday sessions in spring 2025 and another summer session in July 2026. Click here to learn more about Coastal Creatives. 

To stay up to date with happenings on our campus and information about our residential and summer programs, check out our webpage! 

Schools across our region have asked for more professional learning opportunities tailored to specific educator roles—and we listened. ArtsNOW has designed three one-day sessions to meet those needs, each one focused on a distinct audience: new teachers, fine arts educators, and instructional leaders. These dynamic, hands-on sessions offer practical strategies, meaningful collaboration, and real tools to support arts integration and STEAM implementation in every classroom. Whether you're just getting started or leading the way, there’s a session built for you. Register today!