Meet our 2024-25 Equity in Arts Learning for Colorado Youth grantees and learn more about their amazing projects!
- School Partner | Denver Public Schools Transition to Independence Program
- Project Title & Overview | “ArtWorks” : Access Gallery will serve 10-15 high school students with disabilities with their transitions out of high school by facilitating a paid, eight-week intensive internship that focuses on skill-building and job-readiness skills for young adults with disabilities across eight weeks in the summer of 2024.
- City & County | Denver
- Project Title & Overview | “Exploring Visual Arts at the Clubs” : Boys & Girls Clubs of Pueblo County is thrilled to welcome professional visual artists into eight Clubhouses for hands-on and free-to-family engagement with their youth. Local artists will share their passion and talents with hundreds of club members in the next year and guide them in creating their own expressive art pieces.
- City & County | Pueblo
- Project Title & Overview| “Special Needs Acting Programs at Colorado ACTS (S.N.A.P.)” : Colorado ACTS is proud to offer Special Needs Acting Programs (S.N.A.P), a uniquely inclusive community theater opportunity for children and young adults who are differently-abled. S.N.A.P. is an integral part of closing the gap between the arts and children with disabilities in the local community—making the Denver metro area a more creative and more equitable community for all.
- City & County | Arvada/Wheat Ridge, Jefferson
- School Partner | DSST: Elevate Northeast Middle School
- Project Title & Overview | “‘I AM’ Digital Media Program”: An enriching 8-week arts integration journey where young scholars explore the realms of self-discovery through visual storytelling, digital music composition, and cinematic mastery. “I AM” exists to fill the access gap for students in Far Northeast Denver to comprehensive arts education and state-of-the-art technologies that will open their minds artistically and provide skills for the 21st century.
- City & County | Denver
- School Partner | Cowell Elementary
- Project Title & Overview | “KinderBop Programming for Cowell Elementary” : The Colorado Conservatory for the Jazz Arts (“CCJA”) is excited to partner with Cowell Elementary School in Villa Park during the 2024-25 academic year, through the integration of its Kinderbop music programming into Cowell’s regular school day, reaching their entire student body of 270 children. The programming will be split by semester, working with grades K-2 during Fall 2024 and grades 3-5 in Spring 2025.
- City & County | Denver
- School Partners | Denver Center for 21st Century Learning, Compassion Road Academy and Florence Crittenton High School
- Project Title & Overview | “IMPACT Music Program Delivery in Denver Pathways Schools” : Colorado Music Bridge (CMB)’s project will increase equitable access to music education for 150+ racially diverse and primarily economically disadvantaged students through delivery of the IMPACT Music Program in partnership with at least three of the six Denver “Pathways” schools, which are underfunded and otherwise lack music programming.
- City & County | Denver
- School Partner | Southern Ute Indian Montessori Academy
- Project Title & Overview | “Southern Ute Indian Montessori Academy (SUIMA) Art Enrichment Program” : This project brings age-appropriate mixed media arts enrichment from kindergarteners to upper elementary students in 6th grade. The goal is to enhance the arts and culture of the community long-term in partnership with classes currently teaching Ute culture and language.
- City & County | Ignacio, La Plata
- Project Title | “DAVA Youth Film Program” : This project builds on the strong foundation of DAVA’s existing youth film program in partnership with the Community College of Aurora Department of Cinematic Arts. Grant funding will allow DAVA to serve more students, deepen learning with a new team of expert filmmakers from the Askkanwii Filmmaking Hub, and further expand creative career opportunities for our teens while amplifying their stories and voices on an international stage.
- City & County | Aurora, Arapahoe
- School Partners | Center for Talent Development at Greenlee, Oakland Elementary, Hallett Academy, Whittier K-8, Columbian Elementary, Colfax Elementary, Ellis Elementary and Boston K-8
- Project Title & Overview | “Education Through Music Colorado In-School Music Instruction Program“ : ETM-Colorado makes music education a reality for thousands of children in the Denver metro area who are missing formal music education in school. With an in-school approach to music education, teaching artists provide music education within each partner school, making music education eminently accessible to over 2,000 students.
- Cities & Counties | Denver, Aurora, Arapahoe
- School Partner | Beach Court Elementary School
- Project Title & Overview | “Danzantes De Colores by Fiesta Colorado Dance Company” : Danzantes de Colores is a Mexican Dance Residency with Jeanette Trujillo- Lucero and the Fiesta Colorado Dancers. Students will have the opportunity to learn traditional Mexican dances and sing songs such as the “Los Niños Cantores.” They will enjoy their own performance in community Festivals and school events.
- City & County | Denver
- School Partners | Various schools in Denver Metro counties
- Project Title & Overview | “YOUR VOICE: Intervention” : The funds from this grant will support the Your Voice Intervention program. The core of this program is to create spaces of restoration in Detention Centers, Facility Schools, Alternative Schools, and Diversion, as well as other sites. The program aims to empower young people by offering support, healing, and opportunities for personal growth through Restorative Theater.
- Counties | Denver, Jefferson, Arapahoe
- Project Title & Overview | “Samba Colorado Brazilian Dance & Music Youth Program” : Montbello Career and Technical High School (MCT) is excited to collaborate with Samba Colorado, a Brazilian arts organization specializing in African Diaspora dance and music, to provide a culturally responsive and relevant dance and music program to its diverse student body. This new arts education partnership will allow students to engage in collaborative arts learning, and aims to additionally pave the way for career opportunities in the arts, as well as create opportunities for the local community to attend cultural performances free of cost.
- City & County | Denver
- School Partners | Serving various Denver Public middle schools and high schools where NACE provides support.
- Project Title & Overview | “Native American Voices: Exploring cultural and personal storytelling through handcrafting and playing Native American Style Flutes” : NACE with lead artist, Emily vonSwearingen, will collaborate with Native middle-high school students in teaching how to handcraft Native American style flutes and learn how to play them in forms of storytelling. The overarching goal of this project is to empower young generations of Native students in finding their “voice” with their own flutes to create their own stories rooted in Native cultural history.
- City & County | Denver
- School Partners | Grant Beacon and Kepner Beacon Middle Schools
- Project Title & Overview | “Rhythms of Resilience: Empowering Denver’s West Side Youth Through Drum Line” : Rhythms of Resilience is a Westwood youth drum line program rooted in the belief that all youth deserve equitable access to arts education, particularly those from historically marginalized backgrounds. The program offers a safe haven for youth to cultivate not only musical talents but also essential life skills such as leadership, work ethic, and teamwork.
- City & County | Denver
- School Partners | Mountain Valley School in Saguache, Sierra Grande School in Fort Garland, and Centennial School in San Luis.
- Project Title & Overview | “San Luis Valley Colcha Embroidery” : The San Luis Valley Colcha Embroidery Project is a collaboration between HEART of Saguache, The Range, and artists in the San Luis Valley to support an important regional textile art. They will be providing colcha embroidery workshops for students at Mountain Valley School in Saguache, Sierra Grande School in Fort Garland, and Centennial School in San Luis.
- City & County | Saguache, Costilla
- School Partner | Gilliam Youth Services Center
- Project Title & Overview | “Orbit: Sphere in the Community, collaboration with Colorado Music Bridge and Gilliam Youth Services Center” : Sphere Ensemble, in a three-way partnership with Colorado Music Bridge and Gilliam Youth Services Center, has a goal to teach the youth incarcerated at Gilliam how to compose their own hip-hop music, specifically utilizing the sounds of violins, violas, and cellos. Sphere musicians will perform and record, function as compositional collaborators with the youth at Gilliam, collaborate with performers and recording artists, all to bring the musical works of the students to life.
- City & County | Denver
- Project Title & Overview |“The Spectrum Songwriting Club” : The Spectrum Song Writing Club aims to support queer youth at Standley Lake High School by creating a space in which all students can explore and share their identity through a year-long collaborative process. Guest teaching artist H. Ellie Wolfe will share their expertise and coach students through performances, recording, and an EP release party.
- City & County | Westminster, Jefferson
- School Partners | Steamboat Springs School District schools serving K-5
- Project Title & Overview | “Integrating Performing Arts and Social and Emotional Learning” : The school-based performing arts program will be integrated into dedicated classes in partnership with local professional artist, Lora Labaree. Elementary students will have the opportunity to act, sing and dance as they prepare to perform in an arts production for the community.
- City & County | Steamboat Springs, Routt
- Project Title | “Stepping Stones’ Teaching Artist Residency” : The Stepping Stones Resident Teaching Artist project will offer culturally-responsive arts opportunities to historically marginalized youth within our safe, welcoming drop-in centers. Together, their diverse staff, youth, and teaching artist will cultivate community, creativity, and positive identity through two days per week of engaging, responsive arts programming.
- City & County | Carbondale, Garfield
- School Partners | Poudre School District and Thompson School District
- Project Title & Overview | “Raise the Youth!” : Raise the Youth! offers weekly individual music lessons with professional musicians to youth who are not able to access professional instruction due to cost, transportation, and other barriers. The goal of the program is to provide youth with a range of musical experiences while engaging in creative prosocial behavior.
- City & County | Fort Collins, Larimer
- Project Title & Overview | “Free Theater Project (Ouray County Schools)” : Weehawken Creative Arts is offering a third year of their beloved Free Theater Project for all students in Ouray County. Additionally, in partnership with the Ouray Library and Safer More Affirming Communities, the project will add additional storytelling and art events centered around support and advocacy for all ages of the LGBTQ+ community.
- City & County | Ridgway, Ouray