Englewood Cultural Arts Center

Support Englewood Arts in its efforts to provide both in-school and after-school arts education opportunities for low-income children in Englewood and Sheridan schools. Your support will make instrumental music instruction accessible to this underserved community.

Testimonials

Being an urban, Title 1 middle school, we work on a regular basis to find community partners that can help support the many needs associated with a population that contains many at risk students. The needs of our students range between academic, emotional, physical and so many other places in between. With the finanacial strain placed on schools, it is imperative that we find outside partnerships that are able to help us provide the smaller nuances of need and support for our students.

For the past year, one of the partnerships Sheridan Middle School has had the ability to foster is with the Englewood Cultural Arts Center. Through the support of this partnership, we have been able to offer a violin class integrated into our daily class schedule. This class has provided instruments for the students involved and allowed twenty students to receive violin instruction from an outstanding teacher. The students involved in these classes have demonstrated strong personal growth and confidence not only in violin, but in their other classes as well. Along with performing for the student body in different capacities, the violin class has taken the initiative to create outside performance opportunities, including visiting University Hospital and playing for patients in the children's ward.

The students involved in the program absolutely appreciate this privilege and have requested on numerous occasions to grow the program, hoping for more advanced and year long classes. In addition, the entire student body has benefited form having both the violin class perform and being treated to a special concert by The Sphere Ensemble. After this performance we had a spike in requests for violin class, with a number of students who had never played before hoping they could learn the instrument.

Thank you for all that you do,

Amy Kolquist
Asst. Principal
Sheridan Middle School