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’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 office of education. The program began with the Spark! Initiative, which established an Arts Business Coalition to support the creation of new arts programs and rekindle existing programs in underserved schools through an adopt-a-school approach. Fresno County’s arts education work has evolved to focus on the rural parts of the county, where disparities in arts education access are particularly acute. Students in rural schools tend to be more racially diverse and economically disadvantaged than students in the county’s more urban and suburban schools. FCOE will work with local school districts to ensure that rural students have access to culturally responsive instruction in the arts and arts integration at school.