Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth Announces 2005 Picasso Project Grants

Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth Announces 2005 Picasso Project Grants Nine Schools Win $31,500 in Stipends to Support Art, Music and Drama Activities PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY) today announced the winners of the 2005 Picasso Project grants, a program which provides stipends to city public schools for arts activities for which funds wouldn't otherwise be available. This year nine schools received awards, ranging from $1,500 to $5,000. They were selected by the Picasso Project Advisory Committee, from applications submitted by schools throughout the city. The Picasso Project was launched during the 2002-2003 school year, with the goal of supporting music, art, and dance and drama instruction in Philadelphia public schools - particularly those which do not include art or music in the curriculum. Since its inception, the Picasso Project has raised more than $98,000 from foundations and individuals to support arts projects in 31 schools. "We're happy to be able to fund nine very creative and promising arts initiatives this year," said PCCY Executive Director Shelly Yanoff. "We aim to raise more money to fund more projects - but our most important goal is to build awareness that art and music are essential elements of a quality education, that should be fully funded as a standard part of every school's curriculum." Evelyn Eskin, chair of the Picasso Project Advisory Board which selected this year's winners, noted that many studies document the strong relationship between learning in the arts and the fundamental cognitive skills used in mastering other school subjects, including reading, writing and mathematics. "The arts also play a powerful role in motivating students to stay engaged with learning," Eskin said. "They also contribute to social development - building self-confidence, self-discipline and self-control, as well as learning to cooperate and collaborate with others." Sixty-five of the 276 elementary, middle and high schools in Philadelphia currently have neither art nor music teachers on their full-time faculty. Another 110 schools have art or music teachers - but not both. School District officials are working to stretch existing resources, in order to provide opportunities for learning in drama, dance, music and art in every high school and middle school. Inadequate funding for art and music instruction in Philadelphia schools is the result of decades of inequitable distribution of public resources in public education in Pennsylvania. Faced with perennial funding shortfalls, under-resourced rural districts and urban districts like Philadelphia have gradually cut the arts in order to support basic academic subjects. The requirements of the "No Child Left Behind" Act have intensified this trend, as schools struggle to meet performance targets in reading, math and science - or risk sanctions and restructuring. According to "Academic Atrophy: The Condition of the Liberal Arts in America's Public Schools," a research report from the Washington-based Council for Basic Education, large numbers of minority students particularly have been affected by cutbacks in arts education - a troubling development in light of studies that suggest the arts can help black and Hispanic children close the achievement gap with whites and Asians. [The full report is available at downloads.ncss.org/legislative/AcademicAtrophy.pdf.] Major contributors to the Picasso Project include The Annenberg Foundation, the Hess Foundation, Lincoln Financial Group Foundation, Klorfine Foundation, the Norman Cohn Family and many individuals throughout the Philadelphia region. The winning projects will be executed during winter and spring of 2005 - beginning in January and wrapping up in June. A description of each winning arts activity, including contact information for the project coordinators at each school, is available on the PCCY website, http://www.pccy.org/. For assistance in setting up interviews or photos at Picasso sites, please contact PCCY. The Picasso Project is a program of Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth. Founded in 1980, PCCY is the region's leading advocacy and public policy organization focused on improving the lives and life chances of children in our area. PCCY is an independent, non-profit organization. For more information about the impact of arts instruction on student academic and social development visit the following websites: -- http://www.menc.org/information/advocate/facts.html - "Music Education Facts & Figures," The Music Education Association. -- http://www.aep-arts.org/ - "Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development," a review of 62 studies of the impact of the arts on learning, Arts Education Partnership. Source: Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth CONTACT: Linda Wright Moore, +1-215-563-5848 ext. 23, or Bonnie Raines, +1-215-563-5848 ext. 22, both of Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth Web site: http://www.menc.org/information/advocate/facts.html Web site: http://www.aep-arts.org/ Web site: http://www.pccy.org/ ------- Profile: International Entertainment