WHY WE ARE HERE
INSPIRE. EDUCATE. EMPOWER.
Art education produces better outcomes for students including increased academic performance, higher rates of college acceptance and greater success in future careers.
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We’re here because art education matters.
“Art has the role in education of helping children become like themselves instead of more like everyone else.”
– Sydney Gurewitz Clemens
We are firm believers in the tangible, measurable benefits of art education and in the inherent creative genius of every child. We exist to nurture the powerful and transformative skills of creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication through visual art. Every lesson, project, and experience we have developed is designed to enhance these skills and provide real-world examples of how creativity can manifest itself in a life and career.
By providing high quality curriculum we nurture the natural creativity and curiosity of students. This creativity, as Albert Einstein famously said, is “contagious” – not just from person to person but across all disciplines and facets of a student’s life.
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Although we believe in the independent value of visual art we are also motivated by the fact that art education has been proven to produce better outcomes for students across all disciplines. These benefits include increased academic performance, higher rates of college acceptance, and greater success in future careers.
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Despite the evidence of the importance of art education, art programs tend to be the first to suffer from cuts in school budgets and unfortunately not all children have art supplies at home. We take the evidence seriously and believe that art is not a luxury but an essential element to a young person’s education. We exist to provide greater access to education to ensure that they have the opportunity to experience its very real and far-reaching benefits.
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Disadvantaged students with a high participation in the arts have a drop-out rate of 4 percent compared to 22 percent for peers with low participation in the arts.
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Low-income students who are highly engaged in the arts are more than twice as likely to graduate college as peers with no arts education.
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72 percent of business leaders say creativity is the top skill they seek when hiring.
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Participating in the arts is shown to create a feeling of connection and community, which is proven to be a driver in helping people rise out of poverty.