The rotunda of the Education Department’s Tweed Courthouse headquarters sounded more like a church Tuesday, as LaGuardia High School’s gospel choir sang from multiple floors — filling it with song.

Elijah Allen plays trumpet in the choir’s band.

“It really brings communities together. And especially when you’re playing in a church, when you’re playing in a place like this, everyone stands up, everyone starts to clap their hands. And that’s what the music is really about — bringing people together,” Elijah said.

What You Need To Know

  • School officials released a report finding that the availability of arts programs in city schools increased last school year

  • The amount schools spent on arts went up, too, thanks in part to federal stimulus money

  • The DOE will launch a new arts hub next fall, which they say will be a space for principals, teachers, students and the city's artists to collaborate

The Education Department spotlighted programs like this one as it rolled out its annual Arts in Schools report Tuesday, which surveys the programs available to students citywide — and found that offerings had increased after pandemic setbacks. Schools Chancellor David Banks says he wants to keep growing arts programs, despite tight budgets.

“Over years the arts has always been the first thing that when tough budget times happen what do we do, we cut the arts, as though it’s somehow just an added thing and if you can have it, that’s fine, but if you can’t afford to have it, it’s always the first thing to go. But we’re going to make sure that’s not the case,” Banks promised.

Eighty percent of the city’s schools responded to the survey — and of them, 99% of elementary and middle schools and 100% of high schools offered at least one art discipline last school year. Schools spent more than $550 million on the arts last year — an increase of about $124 million compared to the year prior, thanks in part to federal stimulus money.

Officials also lauded the creation of a new arts hub in Brooklyn — a space where principals, teachers, students, and artists from the city’s many cultural institutions will be able to collaborate.

“The arts hub is really just an incubator for innovation. It’s a place that we can just try new ideas. And for the ones that work, we can export them out into our school buildings,” Paul Thompson, executive director of The Arts Office at DOE, said.

The space already includes a black box theater, and there are plans to add dance and music studios, classrooms and conference space ahead of a fuller launch in the fall.

“We’ll have artists, we’ll have educators, we’ll have students, we’ll have them all in one space, just making art,” Thompson said.