Mayor Walsh announces $1.5 million arts education grant for Boston Public Schools
Mayor Martin Walsh announced that the Boston Public Schools Arts Expansion Initiative has been awarded $1.5 million in grant funding from The Wallace Foundation, a national philanthropy that promotes children’s learning and enrichment opportunities and access to arts learning.
The Initiative was launched in 2009 as a public-private collaboration between BPS and EdVestors — a Boston-based organization focused on school improvements— as well as local and national funders and arts and cultural organizations with the goal of expanding arts education in Boston schools. The grant will support work to implement new approaches to arts instruction, curriculum and professional development for teachers, partnership coordination and student and family engagement.
“I am honored that The Wallace Foundation has chosen to invest in our ongoing effort to increase the presence of quality arts education in the Boston Public Schools,” Walsh said. “Through the Boston Creates cultural planning process, we are not only enriching the lives of our young people, but we are working towards ensuring a future where art will play a pivotal role in Boston’s cultural landscape.”
Since the BPS Arts Expansion Initiative’s launching, the number of Boston students in preschool through eighth grade that receive weekly, year-long arts education has increased from 67 to 93 percent and access to arts education for high school students has more than doubled, reaching 17,000 additional students.
“The BPS Arts Expansion effort is an excellent model of true public-private partnership that is benefiting students in the Boston Public Schools,” Tommy Chang, superintendent of BPS, said. “Our schools are focusing on the arts in a way that they never have thanks in large part to our partnership with private donors, and our students are reaping the rewards of that generosity.”
The initiative has spurred an increase in public funds supporting arts education, from $15 million annually in 2009 through the BPS budget to $26 million this school year. These funds chiefly support arts teachers for the school system, whose ranks have grown by 120 teachers over the past six years.
The initiative also supports community-based arts organizations who partner with BPS to further expand the range of offerings available for students.
“We know high-quality arts education provides important benefits to students – from exposure to new perspectives, to helping them learn how to learn,” said Daniel Windham, director of Arts at The Wallace Foundation. “Boston has made substantial progress in improving access to arts education for all students, and we are pleased to join local foundations to help sustain the progress made.”
This newest $1.5 million grant from the Wallace Foundation follows more than $4.8 million the foundation has invested in BPS Arts Expansion since the initiative began. Other local funders include the Barr Foundation, the Boston Foundation, the Klarman Family Foundation and the Linde Family Foundation, among others.
“EdVestors has been honored to partner with the Boston Public Schools and our funders to make these increases in access to quality arts learning opportunities possible,” Laura Perille of EdVestors said. “The combined efforts of principals, teachers, nonprofit partners and foundations all focused on a student-focused goal prove what’s possible when stakeholders come together.”
