Education Leaders Institute

The National Endowment for the Arts Education Leaders Institute supports the design of K-12 education through pioneering thinking and intensive dialogue. Established by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the Education Leaders Institute (ELI) brings together school leaders, legislators, policy makers, educators, consultants, parents, business and corporate interests, and scholars to envision a healthy national education environment founded on powerful education programs centered on the arts.

Since 2008, six Education Leaders Institutes have been held with a total of 29 teams participating, more than half of the nation’s eligible applicants. In response to the interest of institute participants to connect and support their state-level education policy work, the NEA created an ELI Alumni Summit to share lessons learned and investigate current challenges in an environment where successes and failures are of equal importance.

The NEA Education Leaders Institute is undertaken in cooperation with the Illinois Arts Council Agency and its partner, the Illinois Humanities Council.