SPECTRA
A major component of the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County's arts learning program, SPECTRA collaborates with professional artists and schools to provide thousands of students in Santa Cruz County direct access to programs in dance, theatre, music, language and visual arts. SPECTRA matches artists to a school's needs and provides arts residencies, workshops, assemblies and student plays.
Why Support the Arts?
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Women in Philanthropy feels that the arts can be just as important to a child's development as the basics of reading and mathematics. Studies have shown that students who participate in the arts for one year are:
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What Does Our Grant Provide?
In many schools throughout the County, school budgets no longer have funds to spend on arts education. For many schools, parent associations and fundraising events take up the slack. However, other schools just don't have a population with discretionary funds to support the arts. The Women in Philanthropy grant allows SPECTRA each year to direct funds to Mintie White Elementary School in Watsonville to support their "Literacy through Arts" program.
The grant helps to pay for a full-time arts teacher in this school. The arts teacher and principal developed a program which by teaching art, art principles, and creating art, the students increase their English language literacy as well as overall comprehension. They are now using the arts to teach arithmetic and principles of shapes - which leads to an understanding of geometry.
Over the past two years, the API (measure of Academic Performance) of this school has grown from 550 to 720 - an extraordinary achievement - which the principal attributes to the "Literacy in the Arts" program.
Click here to read the 2010-2011 School Year End Report .
To learn more about SPECTRA and the programs they support, visit the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County.
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