Comprehensive Arts Education (CAE) is a multi-faceted approach to arts education as an integral part of the sound basic education that is the right of every child in North Carolina.
Our Three-Part Plan
In North Carolina, we teach within the Comprehensive Arts Education framework. The Three components of CAE – Arts Education, Integration, and Exposure – are interdependent and were found by the Comprehensive Arts Education Task Force to all be necessary.
Arts Education
Arts Education is the instruction of an arts discipline according to the Standard Course of Study to develop the student as artist.
Arts Integration
Arts Integration is instruction designed to show students how non-arts content connects to arts content in both areas.
Arts Exposure
Arts Exposure gives students the opportunity to experience the arts as presented by professionals on a stage, in a gallery, or as a teaching artist in residence.
Just as a three-legged stool cannot stay upright without one of its legs, an arts education without one of these components is incomplete for any student.