Education, Arts & Culture Committee

Mar Vista Community Council

COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT GRANT APPLICATION

The aim of the MVCC Community Improvement Grants (CIG) program is to provide funding to appropriate projects intended to improve the quality of life the people of Mar Vista. Please contact the MVCC chair at info@marvista.org for more information.

Community Improvement Grants must normally be approved at committee level and then approved by the Board of Directors. Attendance at these meetings is not mandatory but highly recommended to help answer stakeholder questions about your application. For meeting dates, please visit www.marvista.org.

Date: 11/23/09                            

Amount Requested: $2,700

Name of contact person filling out this application: Alison Forbes, Development Officer

Telephone number of contact person: 310-586-2386

Email address of contact person: alison.forbes@psarts.org

Name of community organization to receive grant funds on behalf of applicant: P.S. ARTS

Address of organization named: 11965 Venice Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90066

Authorized signature of sponsoring organization:              

                                                                                         Howard Spector, P.S. ARTS Executive Director

Description of your project:

P.S. ARTS’ mission is to restore arts education to Title I public schools by providing children with comprehensive, skill-based, sequential classes in Music, Theater, and Visual Arts.  The goals of our programs are to engage young minds, develop creative skills, improve observational powers, increase receptivity and develop problem solving tools—skills that serve children in all areas of their academic and personal development. In addition, P.S. ARTS programs help students develop grade-level appropriate concepts and skills in the arts and help them identify connections between the arts and core subjects like language arts, social studies, math and science.

P.S. ARTS has become a leader in the field of arts education by providing programs to schools in disadvantaged areas, serving children who live at or below the federal poverty level.  Currently, P.S. ARTS serves nearly 11,000 elementary and middle school students in five school districts including Los Angeles Unified, Lawndale, Santa Monica/Malibu, Lenox, and Reef/Sunset.  Of the students served, approximately 70% are Latino/Hispanic, 13% are African-American, 12% are Caucasian, 4% are Asian, 1% are Filipino, 1% are Pacific Islander, and less than 1% are Native American.  About 75% live at or below the Federal Poverty Level ($22,500 for a family of four), 50% are English language learners, and 10% have special needs.

Project:

P.S. ARTS began its relationship with the Mar Vista Schools in 1994.  P.S. ARTS started programs at Grand View Elementary School by providing about600 students with comprehensive, skill-based arts education.  In 1998 and 1999 Beethoven and Walgrove Elementary Schools were added. Today, P.S. ARTS serves approximately 1,300 students in Mar Vista.   Of those students, about 63% are Latino/Hispanic, 8% are African-American, 23% are Caucasian, 2% are Asian, 1% self-selected multiple or no response, and less than 1% are Native American.  About 66% qualify for free or reduced lunch and 35% are English Language Learners.

P.S. ARTS offers the Mar Vista schools a conservatory model offering one or two traditional art disciplines per school.  Schools may choose disciplines depending on their needs.  Each discipline is taught by a professional Teaching Artist (a professional artist with classroom experience) for upwards of 30 weeks from September 2009 to June 2010.  In addition, P.S. ARTS offers a professional development partner program between classroom teachers and Teaching Artists to support skills development and strategies for integrating the arts across school curriculum.  All of P.S. ARTS’ instruction is built upon the California Department of Education’s Visual and Performing Arts Standards, and is responsive to the particular needs of each partnering school community.  P.S. ARTS differs from many artists-in-residence programs in that P.S. ARTS’ instruction is scheduled for the full school year during the school day along with core subjects, and serve the school’s entire student population.  In addition, P.S. ARTS has long-standing relationships with school partners and Teaching Artists, therefore the same artists serve the same schools, and students, consistently from year-to-year, giving the children a much needed sense of stability and continuity.

P.S. ARTS students are consistently recognized for excellence and technical mastery in the arts.  They have earned top awards in numerous district and citywide art competitions this year, including the highly competitive Los Angeles County Student Art Contest, and the Cesar E. Chavez Art Contest sponsored by the California Teachers Association.  Above and beyond exemplary arts skills, our surveys show that 80% of classroom teachers observed measurable academic and social gains in students participating in P.S. ARTS classes--including English language acquisition, vocabulary expansion, and key math and science concept development.  School administrators have recognized the arts as uniquely suited to minimize the education inequities for those who are not fluent English speakers as well as those with special needs.

The direct benefits of the P.S. ARTS programs are clearly evident in the quantitative results of our multi-year program evaluation. An analysis of the survey data collected in the 2007-2008 school year indicates that over 95% of the teachers and administrators surveyed (N = 60) have observed artistic gains in their students participating in the P.S. ARTS program. 96% of respondents have observed social gains, and 75% have observed academic gains.  These results, along with the breadth of research in the arts education field, indicate that more time allotted to arts in schools would contribute to substantial increases in students’ academic and social performance.   Additionally, we found that the average academic performance score in P.S. ARTS schools increased 11 points per year in comparison to the state average score increase of about 5 points per year in Title I schools.

Funding Opportunity:

Adequate music and visual art supplies are crucial to the success of our programs. For the 2009/2010 school year, P.S. ARTS will spend approximately $6,900 on art supplies for Mar Vista schools alone. A contribution to the cost of music and visual art supplies is, therefore, greatly appreciated. A gift made to a specific school (or schools) is defined as a restricted gift, and it is tracked separately for each school.  As a restricted gift for Mar Vista schools, funds will be designated specifically for Grand View Elementary, Walgrove, and Beethoven.  Teaching Artists would request supplies as they need them, programs staff would buy them from the vendors we normally use, and the supplies would be charged to the grant.  If funded, the grant award will be spent by the end of the school year—June 30, 2010.

Music and Visual Art Supplies for the 2009/2010 school year:

* Each year, fourth grade students at Beethoven and Grand View Elementary School receive a recorder, which they are able to bring home and keep at the end of school year.

Acknowledgements

P.S. ARTS recognizes all gifts on the website (www.psarts.org) and, if funded, P.S. ARTS would include acknowledgements of the gift from the Mar Vista Community Council on printed materials for the Mar Vista schools, such as school fliers, programs, etc.

Closing

We hope that you will join our efforts to restore the arts to our public schools with a grant of $2,700 for music and visual art supplies.  On behalf of the Board, staff, and—most importantly—thousands of children we serve, I would like to thank the Mar Vista Community Council for its consideration of this request.  If you have any questions, please contact me, Alison Forbes, at (310) 586-2386.  

Thank you for your thoughtful consideration.