The South Carolina Arts Commission (SCAC) offers ArtsNOW Schools Advancement Grants, a three-year grant cycle designed to support identified ArtsNOW Partner Schools. This program aligns with SCAC's mission to foster arts education by integrating arts into the core curriculum and promoting innovative best practices within school communities. The grants aim to engage students, equip educators with professional learning and demonstration lessons in arts integration, and facilitate the growth of school communities through comprehensive support, including curriculum mapping and arts integration planning.
The primary beneficiaries of this grant are ArtsNOW Partner Schools within South Carolina, including private schools, public school districts, government entities, and nonprofit organizations. Individual public schools can apply using their district's Unique Entity ID. The impact goals are centered on enhancing arts integration across the school, leading to improved student engagement, increased educator capacity in arts-integrated instruction, and a more vibrant school community that values and utilizes the arts as a tool for learning and development.
The grant prioritizes whole-school professional learning, ongoing school support, and strategic planning for arts integration. It focuses on ensuring that arts education is not an add-on but a fundamental component of the learning experience. The expected outcomes include a measurable increase in arts integration activities, improved student performance and participation in arts-related subjects, and educators demonstrating enhanced skills and confidence in implementing arts-integrated lessons. The program seeks to cultivate sustainable arts-rich learning environments.
Funding for the grant is structured over three years, with a total potential award ranging from $10,000 to $100,000. Specifically, Year 1 offers up to $44,000, Year 2 up to $25,500, and Year 3 up to $17,000. This tiered funding model suggests a strategic approach to gradually build and sustain arts integration initiatives within the partner schools. While the specific "foundation's strategic priorities and theory of change" are not explicitly detailed as a separate section, the program's design implicitly reflects a belief that robust arts integration leads to holistic student development and stronger educational outcomes, aligning with a theory of change where targeted professional development and sustained support drive systemic educational improvement through the arts.
