What a powerful and amazing meeting we had today! Special kudos to IPS and to the Mayor’s Office for supplying the rich survey data on attitudes and services. Also, special thanks to Rilyn Gibson for the insightful comparative analysis to the arts organization survey data. We’ll take the next six weeks to review and reflect on the data before coming back together in March to begin decision-making. In between that time, three of us will be going to the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC to meet with our Any Given Child counterparts from around the country in February: Dr. Wanda LeGrand, Deputy Superintendent for Indianapolis Public Schools; Gail Thomas Strong, VP for Community Engagement at WFYI, and I will represent the arts community. So, we are now in a data rich environment and getting set for focused community dialogues and decision-making to ensure arts access to every given child in Indianapolis.

Superintendent Ferebee welcomed us warmly this morning, and thanked us for our good work. He also drew the names of six schools from the survey who will each receive mini-grants from the Arts Council of Indianapolis for arts education. The funding for these Arts Council mini-grants was made available from the Community Indiana Community Foundation through The Frank & Irving Moxley Springer Fund, as a result of the advocacy of Community Arts Team member Andrew Black, a CICF program officer. Congratulations to these six top responding schools for mini-grants of $500 each for arts-related activities of their choosing.

Ernest Disney-Britton, Arts Council of Indianapolis, Director of Grant Services & Arts Education