The National Endowment for the Arts began providing funding for artists in schools in the early 1970’s. The program was later retitled Arts in Education and began to broaden its influence beyond school settings, and funding from the NEA was distributed through the DOS Division of Cultural Affairs. The Florida Alliance for Arts Education was incorporated in 1978 and established as a non‐profit in 1981. It was initially formed as an advisory body to the FDOE and the Commissioner of Education. It was supported by the DCA, DOE and the Florida Arts Council. In the early 1990’s a task force was designed to support local communities to continue to ensure arts education in public schools. Coalitions were created to do this, as state agencies could not get involved in local issues. Since that time, ACE Coalitions have worked very successfully in counties across Florida to support and preserve arts education in their school districts and communities.

To learn more about ACE Coalitions, review this presentation.

To register your ACE Coalition, you will need a membership with the FAAE.  The cost for each Coalition is $500 and it extends membership benefits to your school district and any of the arts and cultural organizations or business partners participating in your coalition.  If you are in a rural school district, the membership is $250.  Each registered coalition will also have access to the ACE Coalition Toolkit for use in their local community.