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Visual and Performing Arts
Creative Conversations: Professional Development for Visual and Performing Arts Teachers and Leaders
During the 2025-26 school year, the Visual and Performing Arts team is hosting a series of professional development conversations for visual and performing arts teachers and leaders. The first Creative Conversation will be on Trauma Informed Practices in the Arts Classroom and will be held virtually on September 15 from 4:30-6:00pm. Registration is now open [link] and we ask that all participants register by September 10.
All Creative Conversations will be held from 4:30-6:00pm. Dates for additional upcoming Creative Conversations include October 18, February 18, and April 23. Topics for these dates are forthcoming.
Updated Family and Community Guides for the Visual and Performing Arts
The recently updated standards in the visual and performing arts (dance, drama and theatre arts, music, and visual arts) have also updated the corresponding family and community guides. These guides are websites that are organized by grade level to summarize learning in these content areas.
Colorado Academic Standards: Visual and Performing Arts (adopted 2022)
The 2022 revisions to the Colorado Academic Standards in the visual and performing arts were approved by the State Board of Education at the April 2022 meeting.
Academic Standards
The arts standards reflect the innate creativity and rigorous cognition, required to produce a work of art, all students deserve to experience. The standards challenge the elitist perception sometimes associated with the arts, asking all students to stretch their thinking and participate in the creative process inherent in each arts discipline (Create, Perform/Present/Produce, Respond, and Connect).
Curriculum Support
Article IX, Section 16 of Colorado's constitution states, "Neither the general assembly nor the state board of education shall have power to prescribe textbooks to be used in the public schools." However, CDE can still serve as an advisor to help districts and schools adopt, adapt, develop, or use the materials of their choice.
Instructional Support
Instructional support is grounded in CDE's shared approach to Best, First Instruction as well as practices and strategies supported by professional organizations and scholars at the leading edge of arts education.
Community
There are many opportunities to connect and grow as a professional educator with the larger arts education community, including mailing lists, professional organizations, and events.
Did You Know?
Did you know that Colorado has a teaching endorsement for dance? The State Board of Education unanimously approved the dance endorsement rules for Colorado in 2014.
For further assistance, please contact:
Financial information on schools and districts throughout Colorado. Learn more about financial transparency.
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Denver, CO 80203
Phone: 303-866-6600
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UPDATED
August 25, 2025
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