The new school year is here and Broadway for Arts Education needs TO SAY THANK YOU!
Because of your recent generosity, we survived the most challenging school year in living history (#LiveInTheOrange)! When many nonprofits struggled to keep their doors open, you - our incredible community of donors - kept us afloat with 304 renewing and 481 new donors in 2021! Thanks to you, we were able to expand our in-person presence this past year to bring more transformative performing arts programs than ever before to hundreds of youth in New York City and around the world.
THE BAD NEWS
NYC public schools saw budget cuts of $215 million this year; pandemic relief funding has dried up; administrators are trying their best to combat higher levels of food insecurity, but students are continually showing up to school hungry, and leaving hungrier; many of the smaller community service organizations that were helping to fill the gaps in underfunded and underserved schools have closed their doors; and everyone is still attempting to navigate the high levels of anxiety that come with not knowing when the next COVID variant will pop up and condemn everyone back to zoom-instruction.
THE NEED
In response to these realities, principals are more eager than ever to bring new and exciting programming, like BAE’s, into the school day. Our programming has a proven track record of getting kids to come to school and stay in school. After a year of abysmal virtual attendance, school partners were reporting that students were coming to school earlier, longer, and more often just because they wanted to attend BAE classes!
THE GOOD NEWS
Across the board, principals see BAE as the solution to many of their challenges. Our curriculum transforms and decolonizes the way arts education is taught: creating classrooms that celebrate our students' cultures, hiring teaching artists who are from the communities they serve, and valuing who we are teaching just as much as what we are teaching. Plus, our teaching artists always have pizza, donuts, granola bars, and other snacks on hand so that students can focus on school instead of where their next meal is coming from.
THANKS TO YOU...
With the demand for our programming increasing every year, you have allowed us to continue to say yes to more schools and children who need our help. You are ensuring that our city’s most vulnerable schools are filled with incredible teachers for years to come. And in case nobody has told you yet today: you're amazing and you're making amazing choices!
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