Program History

The San Francisco Arts Education Project has transformed the lives of children, their families, teachers, artists, and volunteers through its active arts programming in the schools for over thirty years. Founded as the Alvarado Arts Workshop by renowned sculptor Ruth Asawa, the organization began by offering creative arts experiences to children in the classrooms of San Francisco's Alvarado School. The program quickly expanded to additional elementary and middle schools.

Ms. Asawa initiated an innovative program where a broad range of children could work creatively with distinguished visual and performing artists with the following three-fold purpose: to infuse public education with experiential, participatory arts experiences; to teach students new skills as original artwork is created; and to make the arts accessible to San Francisco school-age youth at every economic level. Three decades later, the founder's vision continues to guide the San Francisco Arts Education Project's activities.

In 1980, the San Francisco Unified School District requested we focus our attention on the creation and development of a magnet high school for the arts in San Francisco. Responding to this request, we changed our name to the School of the Arts Foundation and devoted five years to the development of the School for the Arts at McAteer High School. We were responsible for raising funds and overseeing the artist-in-residence programs at the School for the Arts.

In 1985, with the School for the Arts fully operational, our organization returned to the original mission: to provide arts education programs as broadly as possible at the elementary and middle school level. In 1986, we invited the National Dance Institute of New York and Jacques D'Amboise to San Francisco to demonstrate their highly successful and nationally renowned performance-based program, The Event of the Year. With their partnership, we produced the first musical theater Event at the San Francisco Opera House, where hundreds of children of all backgrounds and talent levels performed to an enthusiastic house. The Event culminated intensive in-school work with resident artists, which dramatically improved students' learning and social abilities, skills mastery, and self-image.

The organization had a formal relationship with the National Dance Institute for two years -- Jacques D'Amboise gave support and direction in several trips West to the new Artistic Director Emily Keeler and her team of choreographers. Event '88 took place in the Palace of Fine Arts and the organization changed its name to the San Francisco Arts Education Foundation in order to reflect its new direction -- year-long artist residencies that are programatically linked to the culminating Spring production.

The organization then grew to provide courses in visual arts, dance and music to reach over 6,000 children in fourteen elementary and middle schools each year. In 1995, through an award from the National Endowment for the Arts Advancement Program we completed a long range plan and developed a Cash Reserve Fund of $50,000. The organization changed its name to the San Francisco Arts Education Project and expanded to provide One-To-See, its public visual arts exhibition program and ARTSummer, its arts intensive summer day camp.