The Council on Culture & Arts is pleased to announce the recipients of the newly designed Arts Education Grant Program. Twelve local arts teachers have been awarded a total of $5,415.28 for classroom arts programming.
COCA’s Arts Education Grant was initiated to remove financial barriers for arts educators to access resources and arts experiences for their students, materials and equipment for their classrooms, and arts specific professional development opportunities for their own continuing education.
“We have outstanding arts educators in our area and COCA is committed to helping them do what they do best,” said Amanda Karioth Thompson, COCA’s Education and Exhibitions director. “Though we offer a variety of services to assist local teachers, we are thrilled to be able to support our arts specialists in this new way.”
COCA compiled a panel of volunteers knowledgeable in arts education to review and score the submitted grant applications. They reviewed 26 eligible grant applications with a total funding request of $11,745.90.
Though the panelists recommended funding for all of the grant requests, the total amount of grant funds available to COCA was limited. Based on the panelists’ scoring and recommendations, COCA was able to fully fund 12 projects led by:
Randy Baez, music teacher; DeSoto Trail Elementary School
Natalie Begley, art teacher; Cobb Middle School
Melissa Carlson, music teacher; Tallahassee School of Math and Science
Katharyn Jones, art teacher; Ruediger Elementary School
Christopher Miller, orchestra director; Chiles High School
Devan Moore, band and orchestra director; Fairview Middle School
Coni Preacher, art teacher; Pineview Elementary School
Jefferson Tavares, graphic arts teacher; Apalachee Tapestry Magnet School of the Arts
Leonard Terry, music and guitar teacher; Apalachee Tapestry Magnet School of the Arts
Kim Salesses, art teacher; DeSoto Trail Elementary School
Christopher Seepersaud, guitar and voice instructor; SAIL High School
Sierra Service, drama teacher; SAIL High School
This program was made possible by the generosity of Dustin Daniels, Chief of Staff for Mayor Andrew Gillum. Daniels was selected as one of Tallahassee Magazine’s 2016 Top Singles. Each Top Singles participant raises money for their chosen charity and, through a series of social and fundraising events, Daniels raised $5,000 for COCA. These funds have allowed COCA to make the dream of an Arts Education Grant program a reality.
“This new grant opportunity will make a significant contribution to the growth and development of arts education in Tallahassee, and will provide some much deserved support for the great work of teachers from across our community,” Daniels said. “I look forward to seeing these projects come to life, and I couldn’t be more pleased to help such a tremendous effort.” COCA anticipates that this new Arts Education Grant program will become a recurring opportunity and we invite local arts teachers to consider applying next year. More information about the program can be found by visiting www.tallahasseearts.org/ arts-education/arts-ed-grant.