A steering committee composed of staff from PS 88 and the Guggenheim Museum have developed an initiative entitled ARTS88 that includes five components:

1. Arts Integration: By 2010, every teacher at PS 88 will integrate art into at least one subject, engaging students in at least two curriculum-related art projects a year.
2. Art Blocks: By 2010, every teacher will dedicate one period a week to engaging students in art-making, within the arts discipline of their choice.
3. Art Celebration: PS 88 will dedicate a full day each year to celebrating the arts.
4. Arts-Friendly School Space: ARTS88 will create a formal gallery space to exhibit student art.
5. Professional Development and Art Resources: Major professional development initiatives include workshops for teachers collaborating with the Museum's Learning Through Art (LTA) program and for teachers leading Art Blocks.

In addition, 10 teachers at PS 88 took a three-day workshop on looking at art with students. All teachers at PS 88 engage in 90 minutes of arts-based professional development each year on Election Day and Brooklyn Queens / Anniversary Day. Teacher and student engagement in the arts is supported by a resource library for all teachers to use, including visual aids, music, and books.

These program components are designed to create a sustainable culture of arts engagement at PS 88. They build on a decade of collaboration between the school and the Guggenheim Museum, during which time artists-in-residence have collaborated with many of the teachers in 2nd - 5th grades to design and teach art projects that support the social studies and science curriculum.

These residencies, part of the Guggenheim's LTA program, involve substantial professional development for both teachers and teaching artists, as well as collaborative planning time.

During the 2007-2008 school year, three teaching artists worked with eight classes for 20 sessions each, exploring how what we say, do and think shows who we are (5th grade); reimagining encounters between Colonialists and Native Americans (4th grade); and envisioning a museum for their own community (2nd and 3rd grades) P.S. 88 (Seneca School) is a culturally diverse school, representing about thirty different nationalities. The school has 1,173 students and 90 teachers.

Achievements:

A few ARTS88 Achievements:

• The 2008 Arts Celebration Day was attended by over 200 parents and the entire student body, and included short performances by nearly 20 classes and a gallery space in the gymnasium filled with student art.
• Twenty-eight teachers have engaged in two full days of PD in an area of the arts (sculpture, painting, curating, dance, music, and drama), and have taught units in these disciplines to their students. Some of these teachers have also taught units in these disciplines to additional classes through partnership with other teachers.
• Two alcoves on the first and second floor are now used as galleries for student art, and are maintained by a team of fifth-grade student curators.