---
title: Surveying the Artistic Landscape
date: 2022-01-27T05:30:00-05:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/surveying-the-artistic-landscape"
section: Articles
---
# Surveying the Artistic Landscape

*January 27, 2022* — by [Sala Levin ’10](/author/sala-levin-10)


> NEA-Funded Research Lab Studies Arts Education in K-12 Schools

*I Stock 498129995 1920x1080 — With funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, UMD Associate Professor of music education Kenneth Elpus is launching a nationwide survey on the status of arts education in 4,000 K-12 public schools. The data, he said, will provide arts education advocates "a stronger position from which to effect positive change in education policy."*

In 2000 and again in 2010, Congress asked the U.S. Department of Education to conduct a nationwide study on the status of arts education in schools—information advocates used to argue for broader access to horizon-expanding activities ranging from watercolor painting to singing in the school musical.

After no such study was mandated in 2020, Kenneth Elpus, associate professor of music education in the University of Maryland’s School of Music, realized an arts education researcher would need to take on the task. Now, with $150,000 in funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, Elpus is launching a research lab at UMD that will survey 4,000 K-12 public schools to learn about their educational programming across music, theater, dance and visual arts.


*Kenneth Elpus headshot*




**Topics:** [Research](https://today.umd.edu/tags/research)


**Tags:** [Arts and Culture](https://today.umd.edu/topic/arts-and-culture), [Education](https://today.umd.edu/topic/education), [Music](https://today.umd.edu/topic/music), [Theatre, Dance & Performance Studies](https://today.umd.edu/topic/theatre-dance-performance-studies), [Visual Arts](https://today.umd.edu/topic/visual-arts), [Research](https://today.umd.edu/topic/research)


**Units:** [College of Arts and Humanities](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-arts-and-humanities)