About the Center
"Begin with the experience and by means of it investigate the cause."
- Leonardo
da Vinci

Established at the University of California, Irvine in November of 2001, the Center for Learning Through the Arts (CLTA) builds on the expertise and combined knowledge of faculty in the Arts disciplines, the Humanities, Education, Psychology and Medicine to study the nexus of relationships between arts education, aspects of cognitive and social development, and public policy formation.

Purpose

The Center for Learning Through the Arts was developed in response to a national call issued by the federal government and echoed by a broad range of professional organizations. In 1994 the United States Congress passed legislation that included the arts as part of the core curriculum students needed to master in order to achieve high levels of knowledge and performance. To establish priorities for arts education research, the Arts Education Partnership (AEP) convened a task force. This report, funded in 1997 with support from National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of Education, calls for research in all of the areas identified by our Center's mission and scope of inquiry. The report also calls for policy development informed by this research, a second focus of the Center.

Center Partners

The Center for Learning Through the Arts brings together nationally renowned faculty and professional researchers from within and across disciplines at UC Irvine to examine the reciprocal impact of the arts on the Center's focus areas, including the formulation of new public policy. Center partners work collaboratively to define new--and amplify existing--research efforts as well as to direct service programs, thus broadening perspectives through unique projects and partnerships.

Center Partners Include:

UCI Department of Education (website) UCI School of Humanities (website) UCI College of Medicine and UC Irvine Medical Center (website) UCI School of Social Ecology (website) UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture (website)

UCLA School of Theater Film and Television (website)

UC Santa Cruz Division of the Arts (website)