Gateway to the Arts transforms the lives and education of children through active participation in the arts and inspires students and educators to become lifelong learners and participants in the arts by making the arts integral to education.
History
Gateway to the Arts began in 1957 as Gateway to Music
with a small group of string players from the Pittsburgh Symphony
performing in several Pittsburgh schools. Today, our school programs,
residencies and in-services annually reach approximately 120,000 students
and educators in 350 schools throughout 13 counties of western Pennsylvania.
Our programming includes activities in all the arts disciplines — music,
dance, theater and the visual arts — presented by a roster of over 100 professional
artists gifted at communicating with all ages. Through our performances,
professional development for educators and arts-in-education residencies,
we seek to engage young people's ears, eyes and minds; enable them to make
connections to abstract elements that can apply across disciplines;
increase their body of knowledge; stimulate and delight, while setting a
standard for artistic expectations; enabling them to become aware of
themselves as future performing, writing and visual artists and/or
informed audience members. Gateway to the Arts provides Auditorium
Programs, Arts-in-Education Residencies, Professional Development for
Teachers, Arts-in-Education Roundtables and the Artswire newsletter to the
pre-kindergarten though secondary level education community of western
Pennsylvania. Gateway believes that arts integration improves teaching by
providing vital tools to engage each child in the learning process, while
stimulating teachers to rethink their teaching and learning strategies.