Posted on February 14, 2012

Wallace Foundation Awards $4 Million to Boston Public Schools Arts Expansion Initiative

The Wallace Foundation has announced a $4 million grant to the Boston Public Schools Arts Expansion Initiative to sustain and expand high-quality arts education in schools across the district.

To that end, the six-year, $10 million initiative will work to build the capacity of Boston Public Schools to support high-quality arts education through new approaches to arts instruction, curriculum, professional development, partnership coordination, and student and family engagement. The funding raises to $8 million the total awarded to the initiative by foundations and other investors, including the Barr, Boston, Klarman Family, and Linde Family foundations.

Led by EdVestors, a Boston-based education nonprofit, the initiative was launched in 2009 with the goal to expand arts instruction in city schools, build the capacity of BPS to support school-based arts programs, and enhance partnerships between schools, arts and cultural groups, and institutions of higher education. A key piece of BPS superintendent Carol Johnson's five-year Acceleration Agenda, the initiative was developed by a collaboration of local funders, schools, arts organizations, the mayor's office, and the school district.

"Arts learning opportunities have been diminishing over the last three generations of school children," said Wallace Foundation president Will Miller. "The Wallace Foundation is looking forward to working with its partners in Boston who are testing new approaches to reverse this trend, and to learning with them about how to best strengthen arts learning in school districts.