Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child
For Immediate Release 4.5.19 Bethlehem, PA -On Tuesday, May 7, 2019, at 9 AM, Any Given Child Bethlehem will announce the plan and vision for arts in the schools at Nitschmann Middle School. There will be performances by Bethlehem Area School District students.
In September 2017, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts chose Bethlehem, Pennsylvania as the 24th site, and first in Pennsylvania, for Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child, a program that creates a long-range arts education plan for students in grades K-8. The program incorporates existing resources of the Bethlehem Area School District, local arts organizations, and the Kennedy Center to create a customized plan for arts education for the city. Zoellner Arts Center at Lehigh University is the lead organization for Any Given Child Bethlehem, alongside the Bethlehem Area School District and City of Bethlehem.
For the past 18 months, a Community Arts Team of more than 50 leaders from over 25 organizations have been meeting monthly with consultants from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to establish a vision, goals and collective impact process for implementing the second phase of the plan to every BASD child in grades K-8. The Community Arts Team is represented by BASD teachers and administrators from BASD, arts organizations, teaching artists, as well as representatives from health, higher education, philanthropy, marketing, non-profit and for-profit business sectors.
With equity in, and access to, a strong arts education remaining an issue for many students across the United States, Any Given Child seeks to help fill in that gap. Through the assistance of expert consultation services provided by Kennedy Center staff and consultants, community leaders have developed a strategy for arts education that is tailor-made for the school district and community.
“The City of Bethlehem has a deep and historic relationship with the arts. We have seen firsthand how artistic expression-in all its forms-has lifted spirits, inspired new ideas and perspectives, brought communities together, employed our citizens and brought new residents, new businesses, and revenue to our great city,” stated Mayor Robert Donchez. “The role that arts and the creative community play in making Bethlehem a first-class city, attractive to prospective residents and employers, suggests a vested interest in building a new generation of innovative, civic minded, and culturally informed families who grow up with arts as a part of their lives and contribute to a creative community.”
For more information, go to www.AnyGivenChildBethlehem.org
Information provided to TVL by:
Barbara Clymer
Executive Assistant to the Superintendent of Schools
Bethlehem Area School District
1516 Sycamore Street
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18017
