PAFA Receives $300,000 Grant From William Penn Foundation
PAFA Receives $300,000 Grant From William Penn Foundation
Funds will support PAFA's School and Community Partnership Program
PHILADELPHIA (December 7, 2015) -- The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is thrilled to announce that it is the recipient of a $300,000 grant from The William Penn Foundation.
The grant, which will be disbursed over 30 months beginning in January 2016, will support PAFA's School and Community Partnership Program.
The grant will provide PAFA's Museum Education department the opportunity to continue developing what has already become a robust educational program, both at the museum and in underserved Philadelphia communities in need of arts education. Moreover, the grant will strengthen bonds that have formed between PAFA and members of these communities, including teachers and administrators, students and their families.
David R. Brigham, PAFA's President and CEO, says, "PAFA is committed to providing art educational opportunities to the widest possible audiences and has tremendous resources in its collections, facilities, and artistic community. This generous grant from the William Penn Foundation enables us to share those resources with Philadelphia schoolchildren who would otherwise not have visual arts as part of their education."
The School and Community Partnership Program began in the 2013-14 academic year, when PAFA partnered with Isaac A. Sheppard Elementary School in North Kensington. The program has utilized art education to engage students creatively, and to overcome language barriers in schools such as Sheppard and Julia de Burgos School, which respectively have Latino student populations of 83 percent and 84 percent.
Sheppard Principal Marisol Rodriguez states, "Sheppard's partnership with PAFA has been invaluable to our students, staff and community. PAFA's outreach program has allowed our students the opportunity to not only experience the visual arts, but has also enhanced our students' creative thinking, problem solving skills and has provided a vehicle for our students to express their thoughts, ideas, and feelings. PAFA has provided access to the arts to our community while enhancing relationships between families. Moreover, PAFA has provided our staff with a plethora of resources, as well as professional development sessions in order to integrate the arts into our Common Core Standards driven curriculum."
Through the program, PAFA aims to build a vibrant and enduring artistic community in Philadelphia by working with partner organizations and audiences to design exhibitions and programs they care about. The William Penn Foundation grant will allow PAFA to expand the program from two to five schools.
"We are proud of the relationships we have built with the schools and communities we are partnering with, and honored that the William Penn Foundation is supporting the growth of these relationships," notes Harry Philbrick, the Edna S. Tuttleman Director of the Museum.
PAFA's Museum Education programs serve audiences of all ages and all levels of experience with art, including hands-on family art-making workshops at PAFA and in the community; interactive gallery tours linking art to the classroom curriculum; pre-K tours addressing school readiness; a Student Docent Program and a Youth Council for high school students; and the School and Community Partnership Program, which brings all of these resources for students, teachers, and families into targeted communities and makes them available year-round, free of charge.
With the William Penn Foundation grant, the School and Community Partnership Program will continue to build on these relationships, seek out new and innovative partnerships, and grow both the size and diversity of the audience it serves.
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