The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is planning to launch a program to reinvent art education programs for schools struggling with budget cuts. The program will link local art groups with schools to help revamp art education for students in grades K-8.
Plans to launch the “Any Given Child” project were recently announced for schools in Sacramento, Calif. Ideally, the program could be expanded to at least three cities each year. The Center plans to keep costs low for local schools and will spend about $500,000 to get the program started.
Local arts groups involved with the project will draft plans specific to each city with the goal of making sure all young students have access to music, theater and the visual arts. Kennedy Center president Michael Kaiser wants to find “an affordable approach to systematic arts education.” He believes that schools need a comprehensive way of teaching the arts, the same way they do with other subjects.
The Kennedy Center has already successfully been working on integrating arts throughout the curriculum of schools in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.
Kaiser is currently working with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan to hopefully expand this latest initiative of the Kennedy Center with federal support. The project will not only benefit schools and students, but also local groups like the Sacramento Theater Company and Crocker Art Museum. The mayor of Sacramento, Kevin Johnson, hopes the program will foster a new generation of patrons of the arts in the community.
For the next few months the Kennedy Center will conduct an audit of the local arts scene and existing art programs in the Sacramento area. Hopefully, the audit will map out an affordable way for the Kennedy Center to bring school districts and local arts groups together to promote art education.
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