The League provides information that supports orchestra education and
community engagement programs and advocates in support of the
availability of comprehensive, in-school music education:
• MetLife Awards for Excellence in Community Engagement
—The League’s partnership with the MetLife Foundation rewards
orchestras’ community engagement efforts and offers models for others
to emulate. This competitive program awards annual grants to
orchestras who have found innovative ways of engaging their communities.
• As part of its commitment to helping make orchestras vital to
their communities, the League is currently developing a Civic Stature
Self-Assessment Tool. This tool will be available for orchestras to
use, to both assess their effectiveness in the area of community
engagement and to define the areas where there is the need and
opportunity for growth and development.
• Orchestra Education Initiative—This program
identifies outstanding work in orchestra education and disseminates
this information to the entire field. As part of this process, the Bank of America Awards for Excellence in Orchestra Education
offers annual grants to orchestras in recognition of their work. The
online publication, Beyond Tradition II, shares best practices with the
field.
• Music Education Advocacy —The
League plays a leadership role in national coalitions in support of
arts education funding, policies, and research at the U.S. Department
of Education. Recently, the League co-authored Arts Education,
Creating Student Success in School, Work, and Life, which articulates
the benefits of arts education to policymakers as they rewrite the No
Child Left Behind Act.