Wolf Trap to partner with South Carolina-based Institute for Child Success to promote arts-based learning in diverse regions throughout the U.S.
Vienna, Va. (December 19, 2016)—Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts today announced it has been awarded an Art Works: Creativity Connects grant of $100,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts. It is one of 37 grants totaling $2.5 million to support partnerships between arts organizations and organizations from non-arts sectors, such as healthcare, nutrition, juvenile justice, science, and technology, among many others.
The grant will be implemented through a partnership between Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts, a national leader in early childhood arts integration and instruction conducting services for young children and educators in 30 states across the U.S., and the Institute for Child Success (ICS). Headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina ICS is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit research and policy organization.
Together, Wolf Trap Institute and ICS will work in ethnically diverse cities across the U.S. to: convene community stakeholders in early childhood and arts education; demonstrate the value of effective arts-integration in early childhood education settings; and enable artists to create commissioned works that explore childhood experiences and the culture of childhood. These are areas where arts integration in early childhood education represents a significant opportunity to transform outcomes for young children, birth to kindergarten from low socioeconomic communities.
“We are thrilled to be selected by the NEA to receive this grant, and look forward to working with ICS to bring the vision of this project to life in the communities that need it most,” stated Akua Kouyate-Tate, Senior Director, Education at Wolf Trap Foundation. “It’s critical that – especially in communities where families are living in low socio-economic circumstances – children receive access to quality education programs early in life. Wolf Trap Institute and ICS believe that the arts are an effective teaching and learning tool that can lead to successful outcomes for young children wherever they may live.”
For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.
For more information about Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts, visit www.wolftrap.org/institute.
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Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts presents and produces a full range of performance and education programs in the Greater Washington, D.C. area, as well as nationally and internationally. Wolf Trap’s education programs include the nationally acclaimed Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts, which provides innovative arts-based teaching strategies and services to early childhood teachers, caregivers, and children from birth through kindergarten.
For more information, interview requests and images, please contact:
Michelle Pendoley, Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts
michellep@wolftrap.org O: (703) 255-1917