History of the HAP Conference

 

The Houston Arts Partners collaboration was created in response to a specific request from Houston area education administrators for a more efficient and effective method to access arts educational resources in Houston. Young Audiences of Houston convened fine arts administrators and arts organization administrators to collectively tackle broad arts education issues. These founding partners of Houston Arts Partners were mobilized into collaborative working committees, and by creating a unique partnership that would provide the level of service educators and administrators of Houston were requesting.

 

In 2010, over 51 regional school districts asked for a central database and website to support information distribution and communications. Through a grant from National YA the website was developed and created by Young Audiences of Houston to house partner information, resources, and program information to support a broader network of partnerships.

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In 2010, Young Audiences of Houston sponsored a launch party at the International House of Blues to invited guests to introduce the website and the partnership was born. 

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In 2010, Young Audiences of Houston funded a conference with key area fine arts and education partners, the vision was to have both educators and artists working side by side, a partnership to develop arts education in the greater Houston area. Today the conference hosts over 1000 attendees from across the state annually, supported by the conference co-chairs and the conference committee members. 

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Today, Houston Arts Partners is a consortium of the regions leading school districts and arts/ cultural organizations and state universities, working together to advance the common goals of supporting arts education for all children.

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