The Foundation@FCOE

The Fresno County Office of Education’s arts education program began in 2013 as a collaboration between the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools and Foundation@FCOE, the private fundraising arm of the county’s office of education. Through mini-grants, strategic guidance, and teacher professional development, Foundation@FCOE supports the 32 school districts in Fresno County in their efforts to provide arts education to their students. This grant to Foundation@FCOE will ensure that rural students in Fresno County have access to culturally responsive instruction in the arts and arts integration, with an emphasis on theater arts. This grant advances the Performing Arts Program’s Youth strategy through the Policy and Advocacy substrategy.

The Fresno County Office of Education and the Foundation@FCOE have partnered to develop the Arts Business Coalition, which connects business and industry leaders with arts education in public schools throughout Central California. The Spark! Initiative, the first major offering from the Coalition, supports the creation of new arts programs and rekindles existing programs in ten underserved schools through an adopt-a-school approach. New support for this initiative would enable the Coalition to raise awareness of arts education in the business sector, leverage new partners and additional support, and provide arts education resources for more schools in Fresno County.