Allied Organizations

Spring 2025 Updates from the Ohio Arts Council

Jodi Kushins, PhD

The sun is shining a bit more brightly and the birds are starting to sing, summer is upon us. It’s nice to imagine you hosting end of the year concerts with your students. Whatever you’re doing, we’re grateful for the work you do every day to engage students throughout Ohio in meaningful experiences with music.

In this report you’ll find updates and opportunities designed to support and celebrate music education. The Ohio Arts Council (OAC) remains committed to fostering excellence in arts education across Ohio and encourages you to stay connected with us. We welcome your ideas and input on how we can work together to advance music education for all.

Richmond Heights production of Mean Girls - The Musical

Reserve your seat at the 2025 Governor’s Award for the Arts in Ohio

Reserve your seat for the 2025 Governor’s Award for the Arts in Ohio Luncheon on Wednesday, May 28, 2025, at 11:30 a.m. Individual tickets are $60 -- in celebration of 60 years of public funding for the arts through the Ohio Arts Council. Table sponsorships are also available. Please visit the OAC website to make your reservations and read about the nine Ohio artists, arts organizations, arts leaders and supporters, and educators – including music educator James Swearingen - whose work and stories we’ll showcase as we present them with the only arts award in the state that is conferred by the governor.

Destination Arts Integration

Don’t miss this year’s Destination Arts Integration conference, a two-day gathering sponsored by the Ohio Kennedy Center Collaborative including Partners in Education teams in Springfield, Mansfield, and Wooster; Any Given Child site in Warren, the Ohio Alliance for Arts Education, and Ohio Arts Council. The gathering will take place May 28-29, 2025 in Columbus and include attendance at the Governor’s Awards for the Arts in Ohio, on-site experiences at premier arts spaces, and professional learning with teaching artists from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Ohio Teaching Artist Roster. OMEA members are welcome to attend and encouraged to invite colleagues teaching in any subject area to join teaching artists, educators, and administrators from around the state to deepen understanding of and commitment to arts integrated learning. Registration information is available through May 16 on the Ohio Alliance for Arts Education website.

Ohio Teaching Artist Roster – Accepting Applications for New Members (through July 15, 2025)

The Ohio Teaching Artist Roster - a partnership between OAC, the Ohio Alliance for Arts Education, OhioDance, and Art Possible Ohio - highlights Ohio teaching artists who demonstrate artistic excellence; the ability to integrate academic content; effective classroom management and student engagement; and strong communication with education, arts, and cultural partners. Members of the roster teach in a range of learning contexts in schools and communities. They are vetted by an application process and required to participate in on-going professional development to grow their teaching artist knowledge and skills in order to provide the highest quality arts education experiences. Check out the current list of members and find application materials on our website.

Zanesville Marching Band Universal Studios Parade

Ohio Arts Council Grants

We received more than 200 applications in the 2026 fiscal year to support arts learning through TeachArtsOhio and ArtsPartnership grant programs. Applicants hailed from schools and communities throughout the state. We’re grateful to panelists including OMEA members who carefully adjudicated and made recommendations which will be reviewed by our board this summer. Grantees will be notified in late July of the status of their applications, including those covering the 2025-26 school year.

The Ohio Arts Council will begin our next round of grantmaking in November. Consider using time you have over the summer to plan for special arts education projects and reach out to teaching artists you might like to host for a residency in the 2026-27 school year. You can explore our complete catalogue of grant programs, including those which support arts learning, on the Ohio Arts Council’s website.

Jodi Kushins, PhD serves as arts learning coordinator at the Ohio Arts Council, a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally, and economically. Prior to joining the OAC staff in April 2024, Jodi taught Art Education in an online Master of Arts program for the University of Florida. A native New Yorker, Jodi has called Ohio home since 2003 when she began doctoral studies at The Ohio State University.

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