The Right Brain Initiative receives funding from National Endowment for the Arts to catalyze change in public schools

The Right Brain Initiative has received a $30,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to deliver systemic and equitable arts programming to local K-8 schools. Right Brain, a program of the Regional Arts & Culture Council, works in partnership with local school districts to transform learning through robust arts programming that integrates with core curriculum. This is the fifth grant the Initiative has earned from the NEA.

“The arts are all around us, enhancing our lives in ways both subtle and obvious, expected and unexpected,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “Supporting projects like this one from The Right Brain Initiative offers more opportunities to engage in the arts every day.”

Right Brain invests in the professional capital of its partner schools by providing educators with the tools to seamlessly blend the arts with all other subject areas. The grant will help Right Brain bring its four-year hands-on professional development program to more than 1,200 area teachers, arts specialists, principals and teaching artists in the 2016-17 school year. Through collaboration between Right Brain teaching artists and classroom teachers, the program will serve more than 26,000 K-8 students in urban, suburban and rural communities of Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington Counties, Oregon.

The NEA’s Art Works grants support the creation and presentation of work, lifelong learning in the arts, and public engagement through 13 arts disciplines or fields. This award is part of $82 million distributed by the NEA to fund local arts projects across the nation. To join the Twitter conversation about this announcement, please use #NEASpring16. For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, visit arts.gov.