Sandy Springs art program brings tools of creativity to local students

Sandy Springs students are receiving tools and mentoring to nurture their creativity with the help of the Sandy Springs Arts Foundation.

Sandy Springs Arts Foundation made a $50,000 donation to Sandy Springs middle and high schools to fund their most pressing art needs and to run a student-to-student arts mentoring program called ‘Art in Place.’ The program is comprised of two components — an arts contest and a student-to-student arts mentoring program. Supplies purchased include microphones, instrument storage space, workbooks, supplies, etc.

‘Art in Place’ was first implemented in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to allow students to express their feelings through art during difficult times. The project continued through the 2021/2022 school year along with the addition of student mentoring.

This is especially important to the Sandy Springs community as more than 70% of the city’s public-school children are of students color, and 40% of are from homes below the poverty line, according to SSAF. Arts funding is low, and often has to be redirected. For instance, optimal funding for art supplies is $6.00 a student. According to SSAF, the total art supply funding is often less than 1/3 of that.

In 2021/2022, videos submitted by the participating students explained why the arts are so impactful to them, and each student then sang, played an instrument, recited a poem, etc. Each video was rated by the arts staff at each school. Finalists were determined, and for the school’s participation, monies were donated to each for art supplies.

With an overwhelmingly positive response, the contest was launched separately at each of the four schools. Using the arts teachers as judges, three finalists were named at each school.

“In videos we saw and heard student art in its purest and best forms, and we were also able to hear middle school voices telling how important arts are to young adults and to communities alike,” Ridgeview Charter Middle School principal Dr. Oliver Blackwell said. “Our partnership featured a “winner’s circle” of students whose projects best answered how art uplifts. Their videos were featured on our social media platforms in an effort to uplift our school and broader Sandy Springs community about the power of art.”

Over 830 students participated in the ‘Art in Place’ arts contest in 2021/2022 allowing the foundation to more than double its outreach from 2020 (360 students).

“SSAF through its partnership with my school is living its mission and endeavoring to make an impact on burgeoning artists,” Blackwell said. “They’re simultaneously improving arts offerings in my school and within our Sandy Springs community. It’s been a gift to work with them as they strive to enhance the arts.”

“Art is an outlet for me to express myself in a way that I can’t do in my academic classes,” Riverwood International Charter High School student and ‘Art in Place’ winner Ellis Miller said. “Thanks to the art classes here at Riverwood, I’ve been shown new outlets that I wouldn’t have seen before.”

SSAF also implemented a structured student-to-student arts (music) mentoring program from North Springs Charter High School to their cluster counterpart and feeder school, Sandy Springs Charter Middle School in 2022.

Student mentors from Band and Orchestra at the high school volunteered to three to four middle school mentees each. Volunteer student mentors may use this time as course credit for community outreach as part of their application for a Fine Arts Diploma Seal or for college.

SSAF was able to reach over 930 middle and high school students through the ‘Art in Place’ program.