It’s late August here in Portland and the weather this summer has been pretty much perfect.  We had a few days of searing temperatures, but now we’re back to the mid-seventies.  Which is good, because school starts up again next week!

In our post from August 23, supplied by the Creative Advocacy Network, we noted Portland’s elementary schools have considerably less arts education than the national average.  In fact, over 12,000 children attend schools with no art, dance, theatre, or music instruction.  Well we, Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington, have a program that might help alleviate that situation in your school.  It’s a little something we call Run For The Arts.  In a nutshell, it’s a jog-a-thon schools can host to raises money solely to be used on arts and arts education programs.  It works like this;

• Schools decide when to host their run – Fall 2012 or Spring 2013
• Schools complete and submit the require Letter of Agreement Form  (Fall 2012 / Spring 2013)
• Young Audiences provides the sponsor sheets and posters
• Schools have their students get sponsors
• Students do the jog-a-thon at their school
• The school Run For The Arts Coordinators collect the sponsor sheets and associated funds raised from the students
• Funds are turned into Young Audiences and held in individual school Run For The Arts accounts
• Schools choose arts programs – residencies, workshops, field trips, performances – or arts supplies, and use their run funds to pay for them

It’s that simple.  The Fall 2012 Run happens from October 1, 2012 through November 30, 2012, while the Spring 2013 Run happens from March 11, 2013 through April 30, 2013.  Since the program’s inception way back in 1977, schools have raised a combined $13, 600,000 for the arts.  And this past school year alone, participating schools raised nearly $800,000!

Contact Young Audiences to find out more:  503-225-5900 / email / web