The circumstances surrounding artists’ residencies in school are almost as numerous as schools themselves. Artists’ residencies take place in elementary classrooms where students work with a single teacher across subject areas, and secondary classrooms where students see several teachers a day, each focused on a single subject. Teachers may be arts specialists, teaching in their discipline at a secondary level, or working in a more generalist elementary environment. They may be generalists with little arts knowledge seeking to enlarge their arts teaching experience, or trying to extend their skills in curriculum integration. Residencies can take place in single or multiple classrooms, with single and split grades, over a single semester or a series of years.

With so many factors combining in infinite variations, there is no cookie-cutter plan for integrating artists’ residencies into schools. However, ArtStarts In Schools has found that successful programs consistently include the following strengths, strategies and practices:

• A commitment to professional development for artists and teachers that enables them to develop a common language for work in the classroom.
  
• A shared understanding of curriculum areas that will be factors in the project and how they will be integrated.
  
• A shared commitment to ongoing collaborative planning and evaluation throughout the project.
  
• A clear shared understanding of the arts skills, areas of knowledge, overarching concepts, and their relationship to the projects goals.
  
• A clear shared understanding of how aspects of the project link to applied analytical and critical thinking about the larger issues of the project.
  
• A focus on the art-making process versus the final product.
  
• A strong, clearly defined teaching partnership between artists and teachers who can communicate the skills and strengths each bring to the relationship and determine how these will come into play. (This partnership must be evident to students in the classroom.)
  
• A commitment from teachers to expanding on and supporting the work done during artists’ visits in order to build on and reflect on the central issues of the project through other curriculum areas.
  
• A commitment from artist to ‘work with the classroom’, building on other work the students are already involved in
  
• Built in opportunities for students to reflect on the project both in private and with their peers (journals, debates, group discussion, role playing opportunities).
  
• Flexibility and responsiveness in moving the project forward or adapting aspects to allow the students time to reflect and digest when necessary.
  
• A multi-year commitment enabling artists and teachers to build on experience.
  
• Opportunities for students to present their work in some way and reflect on its presentation.