The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s Flagship School Partnership Program: Connecting through the Arts.
We are now accepting applications for future interest!
- Regular in-person programming available for those schools within 45 minutes of Milwaukee.
- The Virtual ACE Program is available to distant schools, homeschools, or schools that cannot participate in the in-person program for various reasons.
- To receive more information, please fill out the ACE Interest Form (accessed on the right side of this page) or contact edu@mso.org.
Harness the power of the arts with ACE. Join a program that inspires, educates, and engages like no other form of learning!
The mission of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Arts in Community Education (ACE) Program is to advance children’s learning and development by connecting students, teachers, school communities, and professional artists through engaging arts experiences and integrated arts curriculum.
The Arts in Community Education Program (ACE) of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra has been a pioneer in education since 1989. Serving southeastern Wisconsin, it is one of largest, most well respected, and longest running initiatives of its kind in the country. ACE has impacted tens of thousands of students and teachers and dozens of schools.
ACE underscores the commitment of the MSO to our community. Through ongoing partnerships with educators like you, we connect students, teachers, school communities, and professional artists with an integrated approach to the arts and curriculum. And even though ACE is a program of the Milwaukee Symphony, it embraces all the arts: dance and movement, drama, visual arts, spoken word, and every genre of music.
ACE is successful in urban, suburban, and rural settings as well as public, private, and charter schools. The classic ACE program begins in K5 and adds a grade level each successive year until fully integrated at 5th grade. A middle school component is also available. ACE teaches students concepts by moving them (sometimes quite literally) with the arts.
ACE connects in countless ways: students to performers, teachers to students, ideas to experiences, thinking to feeling, and schools to communities. Bring the proven power of the arts to your students and connect your school community in new ways with ACE!
Why ACE?
- Research shows high quality art-based educational opportunities contribute to student success and equity
- Fosters an environment for enhanced student learning, creativity, problem solving, and whole child development
- Complements multiple school models (EL/IB/STEM, and more)
- Encompasses all art forms: dance, drama, visual arts, spoken word, and all genres of music
- Field trip quality, novel arts experiences at your school that broaden perspectives and encourage cultural awareness
- Access to the best of Southeastern Wisconsin’s professional arts groups (and beyond) with one program
- Teacher training and resources
- Family and community involvement
- Partnership with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the state’s largest and one of its most well-respected arts organizations
- Low per student cost
ACE PROGRAM GOALS
- ACE will foster an environment for enhanced student learning through arts integration.
- ACE will inspire student excellence and creative expression through high quality arts experiences.
- ACE will support development of the whole child by nurturing a sensitivity to art and beauty
- ACE will support teachers’ use of arts integration practices to strengthen their abilities to become more effective, creative, and well-rounded educators.
- ACE will broaden perspectives by connecting students, teachers, school communities, and professional artists through novel arts opportunities.
