By Kristen Paglia, CEO
The 2020-2021 school year is all about going the distance. We’ve been training for this marathon school year all summer; building our team’s confidence and endurance so we can meet the challenges of distance education and provide arts programs to lessen the racial and economic divide diminishing children’s opportunities – rights – to be safe, well, and thrive.
In many ways, our work this year is no different than when P.S. ARTS was created nearly thirty years ago. Distinguished educator and P.S. ARTS founder, Paul Cummins, sought to advance social justice by restoring arts education in public schools where programs proven to increase children’s chances for success in school and life had been slashed. Understanding that justice is a moving target, P.S. ARTS staff, Teaching Artists, and trustees developed a program model that could evolve over time in sync with the communities we serve, the moment we are in, and cutting edge research on the role arts education plays in children’s learning, development, and wellbeing.
While nothing could have prepared us for the challenges of this moment, this flexible approach to programming has empowered us to respond to them. As a global pandemic exposes and worsens the deleterious effects of systemic racism on individual lives, communities of color, and our collective humanity, P.S. ARTS reaffirms our commitment to justice. With so much distance to cover over this unprecedented school year, we’ve charged-up our programs with increased focus on culturally responsive, anti-racist teaching, and social-emotional learning. We’ve revised the P.S. ARTS Program Guide in line with the time, and we are providing ongoing training for educators on leveraging the strengths of distance education and harnessing the power of the arts to create just, inclusive, generative learning environments. Whatever the learning platform, over however much distance, the whole P.S. ARTS team – you, our friends and donors, included – has an eye on getting to a finish line where every child has the opportunity, tools, and courage to live a fruitful and fulfilling life. As the P.S. ARTS motto goes – We have the freedom to imagine. We have the power to create. We are P.S. Artists.
