Arts In Education

The Arts In Education Fund Advisory Committee's vision is to transform lives and enhance learning through arts education.

The mission is to increase arts education and to improve K-12 student learning through the arts.

The Laird Norton Family Foundation’s Arts in Education Fund Advisory Committee (FAC) is comprised of Laird Norton family member volunteers who are committed to transforming children's lives and enhancing their learning through arts education.  Committee members believe that children have multiple learning styles and teaching through the arts cultivates creativity, confidence and critical thinking skills.

The Arts in Education Fund Advisory Committee started grantmaking in 2008 by supporting organizations in the states where volunteer family members live as part of a process to learn about effective grantmaking in education through the arts. In January 2009, the FAC adopted a new funding strategy to further its mission to increase arts education and to improve K-12 student learning through the arts and focuses primarily on the Puget Sound region. 

Our process is to award grants by invitation only, and we are not looking for Letters of Inquiry or proposals for 2010.

Grants Awarded in 2010:

Adams Elementary School http://www.seattleschools.org/schools/adams  $15,000
Program support for arts integration efforts.

Arts Corps http://www.artscorps.org  $40,000 
General operating support. Arts Corps’ mission is to provide quality arts education programs to children who would not ordinarily have those opportunities.

Arts Impact http://www.arts-impact.org $40,000               
General operating support.  Arts Impact provides two-year teacher training programs that give teachers the skills they need to infuse arts into their curricula.

Pratt Fine Arts Center http://www.pratt.org $10,000               
Program support for Kid & Youth Art Works (KYAW). KYAW offers youth in-depth, challenging visual arts training and skill building in glass art (fusing, flameworking, glassblowing), painting & drawing, book binding, printmaking and more.

Roosevelt Elementary School http://www.roosevelt.bsdnet.wednet.edu $7,500
Program support to implement a five-year plan to increase art opportunities for students and deliver professional development in the arts as the school works to become the first arts focus elementary in the Bellingham School District.

Rosa Parks Elementary School http://www.lwsd.org/school/rosaparks $12,500  
Program support for efforts to foster a school culture that supports and nurtures the arts in the lives of children.

General operating support.  ArtsEd Washington's mission is to advance arts education through leadership, partnership, and communication.