The Right Brain Initiative Slated to Serve 14,000 Children This Year

Portland, September 12, 2013. In honor of National Arts in Education Week, The Right Brain Initiative has announced that six new public school partners are joining the program for the 2013-14 school year. Between September and June, the integrated arts program will bring music, dance, theatre, visual and media arts to 14,000 K-8 students in 49 schools and six school districts throughout the Portland metro area. This total is up from nearly 11,500 students served last year. 

Significantly this year, the Gresham-Barlow School District becomes the first district to involve Right Brain with every elementary school in its district. The Right Brain Initiative entered classrooms in 2009, with a vision of bringing the arts to every K-8 classroom in the region. Gresham-Barlow’s commitment to the program is a powerful landmark in pursuit of Right Brain’s goal of arts education equity. 

Right Brain welcomes the following new schools to its list of partners in 2013-14: 

• · Deep Creek Elementary (Gresham-Barlow School District)
• · Hall Elementary (Gresham-Barlow School District)
• · West Gresham Elementary (Gresham-Barlow School District)
• · Bilquist Elementary (North Clackamas Schools)
• · Duncan Elementary (North Clackamas Schools)
• · Boise-Eliot K-8 School (Portland Public Schools)

Districts invest $15 per child at each partner school with the program. Every district dollar is leveraged more than four times by other funding sources. Public funding partners include the City of Portland, the Oregon Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts. Private funders include The Collins Foundation, The James E & Marion F. Miller Foundation, the PGE Foundation, Bank of America, and many other businesses, foundations and individuals listed at TheRightBrainInitiative.org/funding. Right Brain’s ultimate target is to serve approximately 110,000 K-8 students in 240 schools and 25 districts. 

Read more about Right Brain’s successes in its 2013 Progress Report, released this week. In the 2012-13 school year, 1,127 school staff collaborated with Right Brain teaching artists to design 206 classroom experiences that integrated math with movement, social studies with film, and much more. Download the full report at http://bit.ly/RightBrainProgress2013. 

About The Right Brain Initiative

The Right Brain Initiative is a sustainable partnership of public schools, local government, foundations, businesses and the cultural community that launched its programming in Portland area classrooms in January 2009. The program’s vision is to transform learning for all children in the Portland tri-county area through the arts, creativity, innovation and whole-brain thinking. The Right Brain Initiative is a project of the Regional Arts & Culture Council. Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington serves as Implementation Partner. Read more online at TheRightBrainInitiative.org.

About the Regional Arts & Culture Council

RACC is a nonprofit arts services organization serving the Portland metropolitan area, including Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington Counties. In addition to serving as the managing partner for The Right Brain Initiative, RACC provides grants for artists, arts organizations, schools and other community-based arts projects; conducts workplace giving for arts and culture (“Work for Art”) and other advocacy efforts; provides workshops and other forms of technical assistance; shares printed and web-based resources for artists; and integrates artwork into public places. Read more online at racc.org.