REACH

REACH

*The opinions expressed in materials on this website are those of the author(s) and do not represent the views of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Office of Research & Analysis or the National Endowment for the Arts. The NEA does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information included in these materials and is not responsible for any consequences of its use. This NEA Research Lab is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts (Award #: 1879148-38-C-21).

What should the world know about the impact of music and arts for children, families, and communities? How can that knowledge lead to action?

Across centuries, humans have drawn upon creativity, imagination, invention, and artistic skill as sources of resilience, healing, connection, and learning. At the Research on Education and Arts in Childhood (REACH) Lab, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), we partner with community organizations that promote early childhood arts education and creative experiences to study their impact on children and families facing economic hardship. We take a strength-based approach to examine what could happen, for social-emotional health and wellbeing, if children and families were provided with high-quality, sustained opportunities for experiencing, engaging, imagining, inventing, and originating. We have begun our inquiry into this question with an in-depth set of studies focused on music. The work of the REACH lab is a result of a cooperative award from the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) Research Labs program.