Idaho Commission on the Arts

**The Idaho Commission on the Arts is a state agency dedicated to bringing the arts to all Idahoans.** **Arts Idaho strengthens our communities through the arts.** We create a diverse network of arts champions throughout Idaho by bringing stakeholders together for conversation, collaboration, and creative visioning. We convene local and regional gatherings for artists and arts administrators, provide grants and technical assistance to arts and cultural organizations, and facilitate capacity building in communities to support arts jobs and businesses. **Arts Idaho makes arts education a priority.** We know that students with an education bolstered by the arts have higher GPA’s, better test scores, and lower drop-out rates. Through our Arts Education Project grants, we encourage arts organizations and schools to work together. We work directly with schools and students through Poetry Out Loud, a poetry recitation competition that inspires an understanding of poetry through memorization and performance. And, knowing that arts education is valuable beyond the classroom and not just for kids, we send teaching-artists into veteran’s homes, libraries, and other community centers. **Arts Idaho supports the efforts of individual artists** including painters, writers, dancers and actors who are creating new projects that are seen by thousands of Idahoans each year. Our Folk and Traditional Arts Program helps to preserve, perpetuate, and celebrate the traditional arts in communities by supporting tradition bearers and Idaho folklife through documentation, public programming, and funding opportunities.