Accomplishments
¡VIVA ARTS!
Viva Arts 2007 enjoyed a second year of unqualified success and doubled support for scholarships! Many businesses, VIPs, friends, and supporters of the Civic Arts Ed program helped raise over $21,000 for scholarships! The fundraiser doubled the amount of money raised one year ago.
Scholarships
Each quarter members of the Foundation Scholarship Committee meet to consider applications from families who qualify for housing assistance or subsidized school lunches. They decide on awards for classes, programs and individual music lessons ranging from 50-100% of class fees. The beneficiaries are children, preteens and teens and sometimes senior or disabled adults. Last year $15,108 in scholarships was awarded with a portion of the funding generously donated by the Walnut Creek Recreation Department scholarship fund to make up the difference between scholarship costs and what was raised by the Foundation in their first year of Viva Arts 2006.
From Fall 2006 through Summer 2007, a total of 74 quarterly scholarships were awarded. Six went to children taking art including ceramics, 6 for music classes, 7 for dance including an advanced student in the Dance Apprentice program, 3 for Fine Arts Preschool, 1 for Flock of Flutes, 20 for the Arts, Adventures, Academics summer camp and 32 for music lessons.
Program Support
Awards for year-long programs such as the Fine Arts Preschool, Flock of Flutes, Teen Theater or the Arts, Adventures, Academics summer camp are particularly of value. For these longer and more costly programs, children typically need a lot or all of the costs covered. Intensive programs provide healthy after-school peer group and summer activities. School personnel often identify and refer families to Arts Education for scholarships. In the AAA summer camp, students attend daily for 5 weeks, taking up to six classes, picking experiences such as Computer Art, Fused Glass, Cooking, Sports and Games and Painting and Drawing. For limited income working parents, this can provide summer supervision for their children. For lower grades, AAA classes are centered around themes that provide rich approaches to academic ideas, for example The Animal Kingdom or Mythology and Mythmakers. Thanks to the many supporters of Viva Arts 2007, financially challenged families will be able to provide healthy arts experiences for their children and teens.
Year End Support
A year-end appeal has been mailed to Foundation supporters, and donors are stepping up to the plate! In addition to scholarships, the Foundation is raising matching funding for a California Arts Council grant. This Spring the grant will provide a14-week, nationally recognized program of art, music, dance and drama to 5th grade classrooms in three Mt. Diablo Unified School District elementary schools. This unique "Arts Learning Project" uses tested curricula funded by a U.S. Department of Education Model Arts Education Development and Disemination grant. The 5th graders are engaged through activities in each art form while developing critical thinking and language arts. Classroom teachers also participate and receive coaching and professional development support. District administration selected this program as the arts education program for 4th and 5th grades. It now faces a $3 million shortfall financial crisis and, other than through this grant, the district is unable to provide program funding.
