Meet our 2026-27 Equity in Arts Learning for Colorado Youth grantees and learn more about their amazing projects
- School Partner | Swansea Elementary School
- Project Overview | The Dance & Rhythm Enrichment Performance Program by d2b Studios will produce a show for Swansea Elementary called – Jumba – The Rhythm of Youth. This is an innovative arts education initiative that combines dance, percussion, and theatrical production to create a dynamic learning experience for students during school year in 2026/2027.
- County | Denver County
- School Partner | Denver Public Schools, Arapahoe Public Schools, and Jefferson Public Schools
- Project Overview | ArtWorks Youth Job Development Program is an eight-week paid arts internship designed to support 13-18 high school students with disabilities as they transition from school to the workforce or postsecondary education. ArtWorks provides critical skill-building in job-readiness, self-advocacy, and professional arts experience, helping participants navigate employment barriers and build confidence. Interns create and exhibit original artwork, learn gallery management, marketing, and customer service, and gain insight into disability rights and advocacy. The program culminates in the Giving Voice exhibition, where interns showcase socially conscious art projects developed with professional mentors.
- County | Denver County
- School Partner | Summit School District
- Project Overview | The Summit Arts Education + Partnership Program is a year-round initiative in partnership with Summit School District that connects K–12 students to professional teaching artists, removing financial, language and transportation barriers. It provides free, equitable arts learning that builds artistic skills, supports academic success, and introduces students to creative career pathways.
- County | Summit County
- School Partner | Oakland Elementary School and Montbello High School
- Project Overview | Students on Still: Fostering Youth-Led Arts Access is a partnership led by The Clyfford Still Museum with Denver Public Schools, Oakland Elementary School, and Montbello High School to expand arts access, connect students with arts professionals, promote literacy development, and center youth-led practice in a cross-generational learning environment. To honor students’ agency, we will pitch three potential projects for students to choose from — Creative Response, Curatorial Practice, or Art Conservation —enabling them to steer the direction and provide critical feedback
- County | Denver County
- School Partner | Cowell Elementary
- Project Title & Overview | Through KinderBop Programming for Grades K-5 at Cowell Elementary, the Colorado Conservatory for the Jazz Arts (“CCJA”) will provide free, on-site music appreciation and education programs for 300+ students at Cowell Elementary, an underserved DPS K-12 school in the Villa Park neighborhood. Classes are in English and Spanish, and will bring the joy of creative self-expression through teaching basic instrumental skills as well as singing and dance.
- County | Denver County
- School Partner | John Adams Elementary School,
- Project Overview | Through After School Arts Program with John Adams Elementary, Concrete Couch is implementing a year long art-based after-school program at John Adams Elementary School, a Title I School in southeast Colorado Springs. Our project will allow participants to build strong relationships, and have an ongoing youth voice in the shaping of community art. This project directly addresses the gap of access to high quality cultural responsive arts learning by providing free, sustained arts education.
- County | El Paso
- Community Partner | Southern Ute Boys and Girls Club
- Project Overview | Building Bridges Through Art will provide weekly, 60-minute, artist-led classes for up to 30 youth participating in the Southern Ute Boys & Girls Club afterschool program. Students in elementary and middle school (grades K–8) will engage in two integrated artistic disciplines: ceramics and rotating visual arts selected through a youth council focus process.
- County | La Plata County
- School Partners | Denver Public Schools: Oakland, Centennial, Whittier, Dora Moore, Ellis, and Colfax
- Project Overview | Education Through Music-Colorado is bringing Music & Social Justice: Hip-Hop Workshops for Youth Voice & Healing to six under-resourced Denver public schools. In partnership with Denver hip-hop artist Old Man Saxon, students engage in songwriting, recording, and performance to explore identity, resilience, and self-expression while challenging the fatalism many young people in their communities internalize. The project culminates in public performances where students share original work with their families and neighbors.
- County | Denver County
- Project Overview | The Accelerando Program offers tutition-free weekly private lessons and masterclasses for afterschool students. The program emphasizes independent practice, parental engagement, and a culturally responsive curriculum, culminating in student-led community recitals each semester.
- County | Denver County
- Project Overview | Through Delivering Accessible and Inclusive Dance Classes for Youth, at Colorado Movement LabFeel the Beat will deliver accessible, adaptive and inclusive dance and movement classes for youth for students who are Deaf, hard of hearing and for those with and without disabilities. Classes for this project will take place at Colorado Movement Lab.
- County | Adams County
- Project Overview | The Youth of Color Arts & Culture Program will provide sustained, culturally affirming arts education to 2SLGBTQIA+ and BIPOC youth ages 11-21 in Southwest Colorado, a rural region with severely limited access to arts programming that centers intersectional identities.
- County | La Plata County
- Project Overview | LFMG Music Academy’s RockLab provides intensive, tuition-free music education for youth ages 8-18 through collaborative band experiences led by professional working artists and musicians that culminate in professional-quality live performances.
- County | Montrose County
- School Partners | Skyline Academy and The Joan Farley Academy
- Project Overview | Troupe Therapy is designed to increase equitable access to structured arts learning for historically marginalized youth, including students navigating mental health challenges, system involvement, and limited access to enrichment opportunities. By embedding professional teaching artists directly within trusted educational settings, the program removes financial, transportation, and stigma-related barriers while centering youth voice and creative agency. With a primary goal of providing high-quality, sequential arts learning that strengthens creative skills, emotional regulation, collaboration, artistic identity development, and reinforces the skills they are learning at their treatment centers.
- County | Denver County
- School Partners | Mancos School District & School Community Youth
- Project Overview | The Mancos Youth Theater Program brings high-quality performing arts education to rural youth through a dynamic partnership between the Mancos Creative District, Mancos School District, and School Community Youth Collaborative. With a four-week summer intensive and a fall after-school program, it creates a powerful, year-long pathway for Mancos youth to build artistic skills, confidence, and a deep sense of belonging on and off the stage.
- County | Montezuma County
- School Partners | Mount View Youth Services, MArvin Foote Youth Services Center, Pathways, Arvada Municipal Court, and Lakewood Municipal Court
- Project Overview | Our Brighter Future program is focused on Restorative TheatreTM for youth who have been involved with the legal system. We weave Restorative TheatreTM and restorative practices together.
- County | Denver County
- School Partners | Kepner Beacon Middle School; College View Middle School; College View High School; Tamarac Family Shelter
- Project Overview | New Cottage Arts will expand two sustained, no-cost arts education programs serving historically marginalized youth in Denver: the Westwood Youth Empowerment Drumline and B.R.I.D.G.E., our interdisciplinary arts program for newcomer youth at Tamarac Family Shelter. Through 50 weeks of culturally responsive arts learning, mentorship, and stipend-supported youth leadership pathways, the project will help youth grow as artists, mentors, and
community leaders. - County | Denver County
- Project Overview | Stillwater is excited to expand our in-school music partnerships to more small and rural schools in Southwest Colorado, making a high-quality music education accessible to more students in under-resourced communities.
- County | La Plata County
- School Partners | Pascual LeDoux Academy
- Project Overview | Swallow Hill Music’s Little Swallows program transforms the school day at Pascual LeDoux Academy into a joyful, music-filled experience, where 260 preschoolers explore creativity through a 32-week, artist-led residency designed just for them. Blending play, culture, and hands-on discovery, the program sparks confidence, connection, and a lifelong love of learning while expanding access to high-quality arts education in Southwest Denver.
- County | Denver County
- School Partners | Rocky Mountain Elementary School
- Project Overview | Guided by The Catamounts’ professional artists, students in Rocky Mountain Elementary’s third and fourth grade classrooms will unleash their creativity as they write their own scripts, choreograph original dances, and collaborate with a professional musician to compose brand-new songs — all inspired by real curriculum. The journey will culminate in a live performance of their fully original work, presented to an invited audience of their community.
- County | Adams County
- Project Overview | Pathways to Creative Equity embeds high-quality, trauma-informed arts education directly within The Matthews House’s shelter environments, ensuring youth experiencing homelessness can access consistent creative learning regardless of instability. The project builds artistic skills, confidence, and identity through flexible, youth-driven instruction integrated into a broader system of care.
- County | Larimer County
- Project Overview | Movement, Story, and Belonging: Arts for Newcomer Youth Wellness is a sustained, yearlong arts education initiative serving refugee, immigrant, and first-generation youth in Aurora, one of the mos diverse cities in Colorado. This project provides sustained access to outlets that help them understand their personal stories, express creativity, and engage with their communities by bringing professional artists and culture bearers into The Village Institute (VI)’s trusted, culturally grounded environment for a series of movement-based storytelling and cultural dance workshops.
- County | Arapahoe County
- Project Overview | Curtain Up is Theatre Aspen’s bilingual (English/Spanish) performance residency designed to expand equitable access to arts education for 2nd–8th grade students in the Roaring Fork Valley. The project engages youth in a sustained theatre-making process culminating in a community performance that celebrates students’ creative voices, languages, and cultural identities.
- County | Garfield County
- School Partners | Denver Public Schools
- Project Overview | Musical Explorers is a semester-long world music program for second graders developed by Carnegie Hall and produced by the Newman Center for the Performing Arts in partnership with Denver Public Schools. It addresses limited access to culturally inclusive music education in Denver-area public schools by partnering with diverse professional artists and culture-bearers to center underrepresented musical traditions.
- County | Denver County
- School Partners | Greeley Central High School
- Project Overview | The Latinx Music Club at Greeley Central High School is a collaborative after-school arts residency developed in partnership with the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) School of Music to expand equitable access to culturally relevant music education for Hispanic/Latine youth in Weld County.
- County | Weld County