The Heritage Arts Institute is a national program that engages historically marginalized Afro-Descendant young people in robust Black music, performing arts and visual arts education that centers their stories, their values and their people through cultural traditions of African Diaspora and Africa. Our goal is to achieve racial equity in music and arts education by employing culturally responsive pedagogy for Afro-descendant students. This is a program of Themba Arts and Culture, Inc, based on the ethnomusicological fieldwork Executive Director Maya Cunningham on culturally responsive pedagogical music/arts education models in Ghana, India, Botswana, South Africa, African America and Bahia Brazil. The Heritage Arts Institute is the first of its kind in the United States, and works with partner schools and after school programs to engage Afro-descendant students in artist residencies with tradition bearer artists, and cultural arts workshops for African American communities. Click here to learn more!
Ethnomusicology In Action Curriculum Project