Five East Boston schools will share in $680,000 in grants for art expansion. The schools in Eastie are among elementary, middle and high schools and 34 arts partners to continue to expand arts learning opportunities in schools, and to nonprofit arts organizations to provide professional development for BPS arts teachers.
EdVestors, an urban education initiative focused on accelerating school improvement, announced the 2016 BPS Arts Expansion Fund Grants recipients in Eastie would be the Adams Elementary, East Boston High School, the Mario Umana Academy, Hugh R. O’Donnell Elementary and Bradley Elementary.
The grant money to each school in Eastie will be used to foster partnerships between BPS and nonprofits and/or teaching artists to expand, sustain or deepen access to arts education for BPS students.
“We are proud to support schools across the city as they work to improve access to quality arts education for their students.” said President and CEO of EdVestors Laura Perille. “As we’ve known for many years, these programs offer invaluable opportunities for students to learn, engage and thrive in their schools.”
The BPS Arts Expansion Fund at EdVestors facilitates partnerships between individual Boston public schools and local artists and arts organizations to develop arts programming in schools. The Fund is part of the broader BPS Arts Expansion initiative, a citywide effort to increase access to high-quality arts opportunities for BPS students. Schools partner with local artists and arts organizations to provide theater, visual arts, dance, choral and instrumental instruction, media arts and more to students.
Since 2009, the BPS Arts Expansion initiative has focused on increasing equitable access, to quality arts instruction. Today 17,000 more students have arts education opportunities during the school day as compared with the start of the initiative. Over $12 million in philanthropy to date has leveraged significant increases in public funding via the Boston Public Schools budget. Lead funders of the BPS Arts Expansion Fund include the Barr Foundation, The Boston Foundation, The Klarman Family Foundation, and the Linde Family Foundation.
“BPS Arts Expansion has increased Boston’s youth access to quality arts learning exponentially since 2009,” said Julie Burros, Chief of Arts and Culture at City of Boston. “These grants have leveraged an impressive increase in public funding via the Boston Public Schools. This initiative is a model of effective partnerships that move the needle. Under the Boston Creates cultural plan we intend to build on this wonderful work and support even more access to the arts for the city’s young people.”