Press Releases

For Immediate Release: August 20, 2009
Sheila Sears, sheila.sears@state.co.us, 303-892-3852

Council on the Arts Announces Grant Awards to Schools

Over $80,000 awarded to support arts education in eight districts

DENVER (August 20, 2009). The Colorado Council on the Arts (CCA) announces ten awards totaling $83,488 to schools in eight Colorado school districts. The awards are made in the Success Through Art (StART) Schools Arts Education program, which provides two-year funding that helps schools and districts create an arts-rich curriculum.

StART grants support the implementation of a 5-year Arts Education Plan to make standards-based arts instruction and/or integration of the arts into other subject areas an integral part of the basic curriculum for students.

Seven first-year awards and three continuation awards support activities to take place between September 1, 2009 and August 31, 2010, and will directly benefit more than 6,500 students. Awards were given to the following schools:

Adams City High School, Commerce City
Lincoln IB World, Fort Collins
Stevens Elementary School, Wheat Ridge
Pagosa Springs High School, Pagosa Springs
Crestone Charter School, Crestone
Manitou Springs Middle School, Manitou Springs
Skyline High School, Longmont
Loveland Integrated Schools of the Arts (LISA), Loveland
Polaris at Ebert Elementary School, Denver
Laurel Elementary School of Arts & Technology, Fort Collins

StART Schools implementation activities include: collaborations with professional artists and arts organizations, professional development in the arts for educators and school administrators, and data collection and evaluation to measure correlations between enhanced arts learning and improvements in student achievement or behavior.

The mission of the Colorado Council on the Arts is to promote the cultural, educational and economic growth of Colorado through development of its arts and cultural heritage. Funding is provided through an annual appropriation from the state’s Gaming Fund and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

# # #