During a potluck dinner at Crossroad School, a K-12 independent school in Santa Monica known for exemplary arts programming, Paul Cummins, founder of Crossroads, was on his way to the kitchen and literally bumped into a man that he had never met but that looked quite familiar – Herb Alpert. 

They began their conversation, which has become P.S. ARTS folklore…  Paul decried the lack of arts education at a local middle school he had recently visited.  Herb’s response was, "You mean the arts are just gone from these public schools?  What if I gave you a grant…?"

And thus, in 1991, P.S. ARTS was born. 

P.S. ARTS has become a leader in the field of arts education by providing comprehensive, sequential and skills-based programs to schools in disadvantaged areas, predominantly serving children who live at or below the federal poverty level.  Since our founding, we have positively impacted the lives of tens of thousands of children.  We have grown from serving four to twenty-four schools, and from 450 to 12,000 Pre-K through 8th grade students throughout Los Angeles County and California’s Central Valley.