New funding will bring in 140 music and art teachers to Dallas ISD

by PegNews wire

With funding from a new arts coalition announced in February, 140 new certified music and art teachers will be hired for Dallas ISD over the next six years, including 60 who have already been hired.

By 2009, every Dallas ISD elementary school will offer 45 minutes of art and music each week.

The Wallace Foundation, one of the members of the coalition, will give $8 million during the next three years to Big Thought, a Dallas-based nonprofit arts group, to help establish the Dallas Arts Learning Initiative. This initiative seeks to increase the amount and quality of arts education in Dallas ISD elementary schools.

The Dallas Arts Learning Initiative plans to spend nearly $40 million over the next six years to boost arts education in Dallas. Funds will be raised from public and private sources, and Dallas ISD is dedicating $14 million to the project.

Part of the money will be used to create fine arts programs that will be offered through the city, the community, and Dallas ISD. The plan is to create 30 art hubs around Dallas. Art hubs are networks that coordinate existing arts programs for students and families at such sites as churches, libraries, and community centers.

The first three hubs will be at the Hampton-Illinois branch of the Dallas Public Library in Oak Cliff and the neighborhoods of Pleasant Grove and Casa View.

The Dallas Arts Learning Initiative is a partnership of Big Thought; The Wallace Foundation, an independent national education and arts foundation; the city of Dallas; and Dallas ISD. The initiative will be managed by Big Thought.

Source: Dallas ISD