Arts Supply Drive Benefits Denver’s Low Income Schools

DENVER – During its 2009 MAGIC Arts Supply Drive, Think 360 Arts provided art teachers in the Denver Public School system with more than $1,000 worth of donated arts supplies.

Donations were distributed among five Title I schools in DPS, where an average of 80 percent of students qualify for the Federal Free and Reduced Lunch Program and art departments are run on a shoestring budget.

“My art department consists of me and a budget of $700 for about 240 students,” said Donna Davis, the lone art teacher at The Contemporary Learning Academy Alternative High School. “By spring I’m using my own money, which usually is about $300.” Think 360 was able to provide supplies such as papers, paints, brushes, sketchbooks, markers, color pencils and pastels for her students to use in her classroom.

From November 2009 through January 2010, Think 360 Arts installed collection barrels at more than a dozen Denver-area locations including Whole Foods, Meininger’s Art Supply Store, Guiry’s, and the Denver Art Museum.

MAGIC, which stands for Making Arts Great in Schools, is in its fifth year of providing free art supplies to Denver area teachers in low-performing, low-income schools. These teachers spend an average of $400 out of pocket each year to purchase arts supplies for their classrooms.

Since the MAGIC program began in 2005, Think 360 Arts has collected nearly $100,000 in musical instruments, theatre costumes, dance shoes, visual art supplies and cash donations,
benefiting over 75 schools and an estimated 40,000 students.

The MAGIC Arts Supply Drive is sponsored by the Colorado Council on the Arts, Comcast and PBS. For more information about the 2009 MAGIC Arts Supply Drive, visit www.magicartsupplydrive.com or email info@think360arts.org.

About Think 360 Arts

Think 360 Arts is the leading provider of arts education programs and services in Colorado. Its mission is to lead Colorado in cultivating and sustaining the arts as essential to a complete education, a vibrant economy, and a dynamic community.