Since 1999, CAPE has conducted more than two dozen studies with major implications for the field of arts integration, related to social emotional learning, academic success, and teacher growth. Click in the PDF Download column below to download and explore each of our publications.

Author(s)/Researcher(s) Title Publication Year Description Area of Focus Key Results PDF Download or Link List
Erin A. Preston, University of Illinois at Chicago 2021-2022 CAPE Artist/Researcher Program Research Summary

Understanding Agency Across Space and Time in Arts Integrated Learning

2023 The themes from the study describe how teaching artists understood agency by inquiry into the conditions of classrooms across space and time. AR/P research explored how two teaching artists, Gina and Jordan, made sense of pre-pandemic, remote learning, and current in-person classroom spaces. Teaching artists processed conditions across space and time and were able to explore the opening of possibilities, inquire more deeply into the role of under-explored qualities of space like sound, and reaffirm their commitment to co-creating agency with their teaching partners and students. 2021-2022 CAPE Artist/Researcher Program Research Summary

Understanding Agency Across Space and Time in Arts Integrated Learning

Dr. Gigi Schroeder Yu, University of New Mexico; Dr. Juana Reyes, Lewis University; and Dr. Patricia Goubeaux, Consultant, DCG Enterprises, LLC
Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education: Collaboration Laboratory, 2021-2022

Growing Within an Ecology of Practices: The First-Year Experiences of Teaching Artists

2023 Case-study approach examining how the practices promoted in CAPE’s CoLab professional development framework guided first-year CoLab teaching artists’ co-construction of art inquiry with classroom teachers and students. The study looked at work from CAPE’s CoLab teacher/artist partners, CAPE’s program for new teacher/artist teams.  Documentation and artist interviews were analyzed.  CAPE’s CoLab partnerships supported not only the participants learning alongside each other
but also the notion that the practices outlined in CAPE’s professional development framework as
living and adapting while remaining connected within the particulars of each classroom context.
The CoLab teaching artists cultivated their professional growth through the dynamic nature of
the exchanges and relationships among other teaching artists, classroom teachers, children,
and materials.
Executive Summary: Growing Within an Ecology of Practices: The First-Year Experiences of Teaching Artists
Erin A. Preston, Mark Diaz, Scott Sikkema, Timothy David Rey, Gina Lee Robbins, and Sharonda Clay Reimagining Arts-Integrated Structures and Spaces through Pandemic Learning 2022 This chapter examined how CAPE’s in-school teacher and artist partners rethought learning and artmaking structures to generate student agency in pandemic learning spaces. The study looked at work from CAPE’s long-term teacher/artist partners and CAPE’s program for new teacher/artist teams.  Documentation and artist interviews were analyzed.  Pandemic learning re-examined structures and reshaped systems; CAPE teacher/artist partners worked together with students to use ruptures as a resource in creating art, space, and learning.  Reimagining Arts-Integrated Structures
and Spaces through Pandemic Learning
Maggie Dahn, Nicko Yankova, Kylie Peppler, Scott Sikkema, Joseph Spilberg, and Jenny Lee ‘Way more relevant and a little less theoretical’: how teaching artists designed for online learning in a pandemic 2021 This article looks in detail at the work of CAPE teaching artists in designing remote art and learning spaces during the pandemic. CAPE’s after-school partnerships in Chicago were the focus of the study, with an emphasis on the artists. The study found, “that teaching artists designed for online learning through centering relationships and resourcefulness, providing emotional support, cultivating introspection and empathy, expanding what counted as arts practice, and including families.” How teaching artists designed for online learning in a pandemic
Scott Sikkema Navigating COVID-19 and School Closures via a Connected Network of
Teachers, Artists, and Students
2021 Chapter on the response of the CAPE network and program staff in the
spring and summer of 2020 to the COVID-19 pandemic and school closures;
included in a book of essays on educator responses to the initial stages of this crisis.
After a brief detailing of CAPE program staff actions, the chapter
focuses on how the crisis generated in the CAPE network questions, ideas, and
experimentation around voice, identity, body, and space.
CAPE’s emphasis on uncertainty and openness in pedagogy and art
making provided a strong foundation for the CAPE network to not just respond to
the crisis, but, more importantly, to evolve and sustain itself.
The Corona Chronicles: On Leadership, Processes, Commitments, and Hope
Scott Sikkema, Jenny Lee, Joseph Spilberg, Maggie Dahn, Nickolina Yankova, and Kylie Peppler How the Arts Can Unlock a Closed Curriculum 2021 CAPE partnered with the UC-Irvine to explore how openness can be used in arts-integrated learning. As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper argues that now is the time to work with youth, positioning them “as knowledgeable instructional partners” and reframing “communities as learning spaces and resources,” and that the arts can create more open and equitable models for teaching and learning. This study focuses on the importance of openness in arts education. The study discusses two classrooms from the CAPE After-School program that particularly centered openness in their projects. One class was from North-Grand High School, with a focus in music. The other class was from New Sullivan Elementary School, with a focus in digital media. Kappan Online: How the Arts Can Unlock a Closed Curriculum
Erin A. Preston Disrupting the Place-ness of Schools: Reconstructing Space Through the Arts 2019 Case study of four CAPE after-school classes at two neighborhood schools. This studies the ways in which the deconstruction and and reconstruction of school spaces coincides with the construction of student identity and social emotional learning outcomes. In arts-integrated after school programs, the traditional school spaces are altered to become more open for student creativity and exploration which allows for students to grow in terms of self-confidence, agency, gain a heightened sense of self-awareness. Disrupting the Place-ness of Schools: Reconstructing Space Through the Arts
Mark Diaz, Erin A. Preston, Scott Sikkema, Louanne Smolin, Ph.D., Joseph Spilberg Digital Media Explorations: How Space and Identity Become Sources of Learning 2019 Varied classrooms from multiple CAPE programs each exploring and attempting the integration of technology with art and academic areas. This chapter, within the book exploring similar themes, examines past and contemporary theories on space, identity, digital learning, and digital literacy and their connections between practices occurring in CAPE classrooms that integrate technology with arts and academics. The chapter examines how conceptualizing digital media, space and identity all as material impacts teaching, learning, and the creation and evolution of individual and classroom identity. Digital Media Explorations: How Space and Identity Become Sources of Learning (external link)
Erin Preston Collaborative Learning: An Analysis of Responses to Tension in Collaboration Laboratory Partnerships 2017 Case-study approach examining the critical first stage of teacher-artist partnerships in which individuals must make compromise and assertions in order to collaborate with one another. This study brings conflict within collaboration to the forefront as a force for deep learning, responsive teaching, and resonant art making. This study found that both partnerships began their vision with relevant contexts for students, and they both challenged themselves to trust students to learn more deeply through experiencing various tensions. In doing so, students’ own autonomy increased. Collaboration Laboratory Report, 2016-17
Raymond Kang Defining and Developing Social Engagement Practices for Arts- Integration in Public Schools A/R Partners 2017 Employing three analytical frameworks (grounded theory, cultural-historical activity theory, and disciplinary power) this study examines the work of teacher-artist partnerships in three CAPE classrooms case studies. The study examines the implications of partnership-based arts integration as a mode for resistance to educational trends present in contemporary schooling as well as the potential of such projects to actualize social engagement as described in the CAPE Artist/Researcher model. The analysis of case studies reveal the potential of arts integration to empower students to implement design-based modes of working as well as the tensions, limits and potentials of transgressing cultural norms of school-based arts integrated projects. A/RP 2017 Final Report
Olga Vazquez, Ph. D. Sound Design Project (SDP) An Integrative 3-year Project Involving Sound Teaching Artists, Music Teaching Artists, and Classroom Teachers 2016 An analysis of case studies in music and sound art-based arts integration projects in elementary and high school language arts, math, science and social studies classrooms. The study employs primarily qualitative data collection methods to explore the intersections of learning in academics, social emotional learning as well as National Standards for Music Education. Students in the the SDP program demonstrate high levels of engagement and learning in both academic areas as well as National Standards for Music Education typically neglected by traditional music curriculum approaches including: composition and improvisation. Sound Design 2016 Final Report
Scott Sikkema Introducing the Artist/Researcher Model 2016 A history of CAPE’s practice as a progression towards a unifying aesthetic and pedagogical vision and framework. The article draws from specific classroom projects and CAPE professional development methodologies as well as art and educational theories that highlight key components of CAPE’s work over time. The article articulates CAPE’s programmatic aesthetic and pedagogical vision in the form of a framework which is inclusive to CAPE students, teachers, artists and staff members: “As an Artist/Researcher, she/he conducts investigations through art and collaboration in order to gain new understandings of the world.” Introducing the Artist/Researcher Model 
Phil Cotton, Jim Duignan, Jorge Lucero, Scott Sikkema Social Arts Practice Institutions and Imaginaries 2015 Varied educational settings where artists, sometimes working with academic teachers, engaged learners via strategies of what is described or debated as social arts practice. This interview of three practitioners explores different ways of conceiving art within school settings, and looks at such issues as sites and constructs of learning and community, time, and collaboration. Art and Design Teacher Phil Cotton describes a trajectory of projects he co-taught with Margy Stover in which students reconceived notions of the classroom, museums and community, and the body. Social Arts Practice Institutions and Imaginaries (external link)
Larry Scripp, Ed.D., and Louanne Smolin, Ph.D. Portfolio Design Project (PDP) 2015 4th-6th art and music classrooms as well as 4th-6th grade language arts classrooms in nine Chicago Public Schools, involving teacher-artist partnerships and teacher professional development. The study explores the impact of portfolio-based arts integration practices on building in-school art and music teacher leadership capacity to improve student achievement in reading and writing, as well as arts teaching and learning. High correlations were found between teacher professional development outcomes and student academic outcomes. Also, high correlations between quality of student portfolios and student academic achievement were found. PDP 3-Page Summary

PDP Final Report – Smolin

PDP Final Report – Scripp (1/3)

PDP Final Report – Scripp (2/3)

PDP Final Report – Scripp (3/3)

Larry Scripp, Ed.D., and Louanne Smolin, Ph.D. International Baccalaureate Teaching Arts Program (IBTAP) 2014 6th-8th grade classrooms in six Chicago Public Schools International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program schools, involving teacher-artist partnerships and teacher professional development. The study explores the impact of IB portfolio and CAPE arts integrated practices in both reading and math student academic achievement as well as metacognitive thinking skills. High correlations were found between teacher professional development outcomes and student academic outcomes. IB-TAP 1-Page Summary

IB-TAP Student Outcomes Final Report

IB-TAP Teacher Outcomes Final Report

Gail Burnaford, Ph.D., and Larry Scripp, Ed.D., Partnerships in Arts Intergration Research (PAIR) 2013 4th-6th grade classrooms in six Chicago Public Schools, involving teacher-artist partnerships and teacher professional development. The study explores the impact of arts integration on teacher capacity and student achievement in the content areas of Language Arts, Math and Social Studies, as well as arts teaching and learning. High correlations were found between teacher professional development outcomes and student academic outcomes, including an acceleration of closing the achievement gap between low, average, and high performing students. PAIR Research Summary

Embracing the Burden of Proof (external link to published article)

PAIR Full Report Part 1

PAIR Full Report Part 2


PAIR Full Report Part 3
Laura Tan Paradis Measuring the Seen and Unseen: How the Veteran Units Foster Student Creativity 2011 Case-study approach to measuring teacher and student impact of arts integrated projects in varied grade levels. The study examines the relationship between CAPE professional development methods and classroom practices across multiple long-term teacher-artist partnerships. Creative practices in CAPE classrooms has direct links to CAPE professional development methods and has specific characteristics across classrooms including: inquiry-based practices allow for projects to unfold in unplanned/unexpected ways; and, curriculum in localized at each school site driven by both educators and students. Measuring the Seen and Unseen: How the Veteran Units Foster Student Creativity
Larry Scripp, Ed.D. Developing Early Literacies through the Arts (DELTA) 2007 1st-3rd grade classrooms in three Chicago Public Schools, involving teacher-artist partnerships and teacher professional development. The study explores the impact of arts integration on teacher capacity and student achievement in early childhood literacy measures, as well as arts teaching and learning. In this study CAPE developed a student performance assessment interview protocol that was implemented and further developed in subsequent CAPE studies including PAIR, IBTAP, PDP, and ATLAS. DELTA Full Report

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