In 1989, Eric Oddleifson created the Center for Arts in the Basic Curriculum (CABC) to carry forward his ideas about the need for the arts to be central to the missions of all schools. CABC had a small but stellar board that included Cognitive Psychologist and Harvard University Professor Howard Gardner and Harriet Fulbright, former Director of the President's Committee on the Arts & Humanities. CABC published a significant library of new thinking on the efficacy of education through the arts.

In 1992, Mr. Oddleifson became a trustee of Walnut Hill School, one of three independent residential high schools in the U.S. that offers a curriculum of pre-professional artistic training and academic excellence. At Walnut Hill, Mr. Oddleifson found a laboratory of education through the arts, and progressive educational approaches led by Head of School Stephanie Perrin. The school wished to promote the concept of "education through the arts" to public schools and other organizations, and created the Center for Arts and Learning to explore that objective.

In 1999, CABC merged with the Center for Arts and Learning, and formed the National Arts & Learning Foundation, an independent non profit organization housed on the Walnut Hill campus. In 2002, the organization changed its name to the National Arts & Learning Collaborative to more accurately reflect its approach to fulfilling its mission by creating partnerships and networks among schools and a variety of institutions, organizations and individuals, to accomplish its goals.