By Josy Miller, Arts Education Program Specialist, California Arts Council
The California Arts Council is thrilled to announce that we are now accepting applications for the 2016-17 Artists in Schools grant program! Due to an increased investment by the Governor and the Legislature this year, we’ve been able to craft a major expansion of our arts education funding opportunities, including new grants to support dedicated afterschool and summer programs, field trips and assemblies, and early childhood arts learning.
A longstanding investment in California’s young people
Initiated in 1976, the Artists in Schools (AIS) program is one of our longest standing grant programs. For forty years, our Council has invested in school-based residency programs that offer high quality arts education to California students by California teaching artists. In many cases, these programs have been the sole opportunity for students to experience dedicated arts learning at school. The Artists in Schools program underscores the critical role the arts play in students’ development of creativity, overall well-being, and academic achievement.
Current AIS grantees include San Diego’s Malashock Dance, whose Math in Motion program teaches students dance technique and choreography using mathematical concepts as tools. The City of San Fernando’s Mariachi Masters Apprentice program connects Grammy Award-winning musicians with underserved middle school students, incorporating artistic and historical instruction to preserve traditional mariachi music. Luna Kids Dance not only implements comprehensive K-5 dance education programs in multiple Oakland public schools, they offer a Professional Development program for classroom teachers in order to extend the impact of the teaching artist residencies.
Click here to see descriptions of all our current Artists in Schools grantees!
Growing resources, growing support
Last year, we awarded more than $1.3 million in grants to 144 organizations that employed 580 teaching artists to provide arts education to more than 43,000 California school children in grades K – 12. When notice came of the increased investment in CAC programs this year, our Council stood by the desire of the Legislature and of California residents to “improve the state of arts education in California schools,” articulated as a top priority in the agency’s statewide listening tour in 2013. This year, our Council approved an additional $400,000 in grant funding to support the arts education expansion, bringing our investment to upwards of $1.7 million for the new grant cycle.
What’s new?
This expansion will increase support for arts education in a number of ways. First, the maximum grant award for organizations operating school residencies through the AIS Engagement program will increase from $12,000 to $18,000, significantly extending the capacity of these programs.
Secondly, while the Artists in Schools program has historically focused its funding on in-school residencies, the new AIS Extension grant program will support afterschool and summer arts education opportunities, both in community settings and on school campuses.
Additionally, the new AIS Exposure program will provide support for arts organizations to perform or present at school assemblies, and to host field trips to professional arts venues. While the CAC certainly maintains its commitment to and belief in sustained, sequential arts education, many of us also remember the first time we experienced professional-caliber art – in a theater, in a recital hall, in a museum, or with a guest appearing in our very own classroom. And for many of us, our lifelong, passionate commitments to the arts are a direct result of those first tastes of its transformative power. The Exposure program will assist the world-class arts organizations of California in providing these opportunities to thousands of young people this year.
Last – but absolutely not least – as part of the arts education expansion, we are extending our support to programs that work with our youngest Californians. All of this year’s programs will be open to application by organizations that provide arts education to children in their first five years of life (PreK). A growing body of research demonstrates that many of the most egregious and irreparable contributors to achievement gaps have already been established by the time children enter kindergarten. The California Arts Council is determined to support arts from the outset, and to do our part to ensure the benefits of arts-rich lives to each and every Californian.
The California Arts Council and our staff are delighted to share news of these expanded opportunities and hope that you will visit the Artists in Schools landing page on our website for more information and to apply!
Make sure to join us for a live webinar on December 8th, 2016 at 11AM PST, when the programs staff will review the goals of the Artists in Schools program, the requirements of the various funding strands, and the application process. Please register for the webinar here.
And remember, Artists in Schools is just one of fourteen grant programs we’re offering this year! Be sure to check out the full lineup of opportunities.
Josy Miller is the Arts Education Program Specialist at the California Arts Council. She can be reached at josy.miller@arts.ca.gov.
Top photo: Cal Arts Community Arts Partnership
Center photo: P.S. ARTS
The Blog: California Arts Council 
Dear Josy…I am the President of the non-profit Sacramento Fine Arts Center in Carmichael. We have been serving the Sacramento region for over 30 years. You may never have heard of us! We are an art education organization. We have classes and workshops every month and shows and exhibits year long. We serve artists of all genres, of all skills, or none. We also present “performance art,” including a jazz/poetry/art concert, headlining the Brubeck jazz band and poets from the Sacramento Poetry Society. We have children’s classes in the summer that are always filled. We suffer from the same problems other non-profits experience…money! Could I meet with you? Thanks…Richard Turner (rkt6438@msn.com)
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Is there any funding for middle class schools who rarely qualify for these grants but are desperately needing funding for arts, music, and technology too?
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Thank you so much for asking a key question! The CAC funds non-profit arts organizations, not schools directly. Identifying partner schools is up to the organization that is applying, and there are no restrictions around demographic breakdown. While many of our grantees focus their efforts specifically on socioeconomically disadvantaged communities, we recognize that the need for high quality arts education in the state is great and many of our grantees work in middle-class communities, as well. The California Arts Education Data Project (http://www.createca.dreamhosters.com/artsed-dataproject/), released last month, gives a detailed picture of what courses are being offered in middle and high schools across the state. One of the report’s key findings is that “only 26% of students have access to the four arts disciplines as required by state education code.” So there is plenty of work to be done.
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