Arts for Learning Northwest In-School Arts Programs

Arts for Learning Northwest In-School Programs offers performances, residencies, and workshops led by individual artists. Performances introduce students to an art form or culture through demonstration, entertainment, education, and audience participation. Residencies and workshops give students, teachers, and families structured ways to engage with different art forms through multiple visits or introductory sessions.

• Schedule: A Residency is a sequential series of at least three visits by an individual artist with a classroom.

Arts for Learning Northwest In-School Programs offers educational arts programming in multiple disciplines to schools in the Portland area. Over time, the organization has expanded from presenting only classical music performances to offering a full range of educational arts programming in multiple disciplines and cultures, and it is described as the only arts organization in the region to do so. An Arts for Learning Northwest Residency is designed to help students gain proficiency in a particular art form by immersing them in a long-term creative experience, while workshops provide an introductory encounter with an art form for students, teachers, and families.

Arts for Learning Northwest was founded in 1958 under the name Young Audiences of Oregon as a local chapter of a national arts-in-education organization, and in 1989 it merged with a smaller chapter in Vancouver to become Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington. Its stated mission is connecting young people with diverse arts and creative experiences, and making the arts abundantly accessible in schools and communities. The Right Brain Initiative is described as a partnership between school districts and the cultural community to integrate arts programming into Portland area schools. Young Audiences of Oregon Inc receives support from the Oregon Arts Commission, a state agency funded by the State of Oregon.

Last updated March 30, 2026.