The purpose of this exploratory multiple-case study was (1) to develop an understanding of how charter management organizations (CMOs) operating schools in New York City (NYC) during the 2021-2022 academic year developed, promoted, and sustained arts programming, and (2) to explore the role of the network-level arts director. Given the desire to understand network-level arts support provided by CMOs in detail and in the context of how that support functions contemporarily and in the real world, an exploratory multiple-case study method with an embedded design was situated as the preferred mode of inquiry. Within the research design, the "quintain"- or phenomenon studied across cases - was the support provided by CMOs at the network level to arts education programming at the school level. The embedded units of analysis for each case included a brief questionnaire completed by the network-level arts director, a semi-structured interview with the network-level arts director, and the documentation publicly available about arts education within the CMO (e.g. how the CMO's website positioned arts education offerings within the network). Data was collected during March-May 2022 in NYC. The first theme from the cross-case analysis involved the strategic vision-setting and on-the-ground implementation, which highlighted the potential disconnects that could occur between what was "supposed" to be happening within arts education (in the vision) and what was "actually" happening within arts education (on the ground) regardless of whether arts were considered "core" or "noncore" in a given network. The importance of the balance between autonomy and prescription provided to teachers and expansion, capacity-building, and vertical alignment also emerged as themes. In addition to shedding light on network-level practices and policies that support arts programming in schools and network-level arts directors' roles within this support, several specific implications are provided for theory, practice, and future research alike.