ArtsSmarts is a dynamic approach to teaching, learning, doing and thinking that has been changing the lives of students, artists, educators, and entire schools and communities since 1998.

We generate and sustain innovative school partnerships centred around the arts to push the boundaries of learning, redefine the environment of schooling and re-imagine student success.

In Classrooms
In the classroom, ArtsSmarts engages students in the creative process through artistic inquiry into topics that span many different subject areas of the curriculum.  Our aim is to improve student engagement and cultivate 21^st century learning skills such as the capacity to think creatively, understand deeply, take control of learning, work collaboratively and reflect.  The success of our model, which can be applied to any discipline or grade level, is in a process that is self-generated by teachers and artists to meet students' needs and priorities rather than a packaged curriculum lesson plan.

In Communities
In communities, each ArtsSmarts program is locally designed and implemented by a partnership of multi-sectoral stakeholders.  The relationship between different sectors is one of the keys to ArtsSmarts' success.  When the interests of schools, arts organizations, community partners, school boards, corporate partners and government converge, change can happen in a way that no single organization would have been able to predict or bring about in isolation.

Across Canada
As a learning organization, ArtsSmarts brings together the efforts of partners across Canada through collaboration in a pan-Canadian network.  Using a model of distributed leadership, ArtsSmarts examines practice and undertakes research with a focus on generating new knowledge on creativity, innovation and its impact on learning.  We continually test ideas to demonstrate that shifting the conventional approach to teaching and learning results in improved student engagement, more robust school-community relationships and a stronger society.