The Cleveland Foundation

We’re investing in arts mastery programs to ensure every child in Cleveland has access to high-quality arts programs in their neighborhoods. The foundation partners with organizations that deliver year-round, mastery-level arts training to help youth develop the qualities they need in adulthood.

Imagine a place with thousands of young people mastering music, dance, theatre and other forms of artistic expression, practicing year-round, in diverse neighborhoods across the city. This vision is becoming a reality in Cleveland, where rigorous arts mastery programs set the bar high. The impact is profound.

We have partnered with local organizations and teaching artists to launch or expand the following programs, which currently serve more than 3,000 young people with high-quality mastery arts programming in 18 Cleveland neighborhoods:

• Cleveland Public Theatre’s Brick City Theatre: writing and performing original plays
• Cleveland Print Room’s Teen Institute: photography
• Tri-C’s Creative Arts Academy: both the dance program (contemporary dance and ballet) and vocal program
• Rainey Institute’s El Sistema: string instruments
• Cleveland Museum of Art and Cleveland Public Library: curatorial arts mastery program to develop and curate exhibitions
• Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: classical guitar
• Twelve Literary Arts and Sisterhood: poetry, creative writing, and performance
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We are guided by several key principles in our funding of arts mastery programs. Successful programs should:

• Deliver year-round, mastery-level instruction
• Have the capacity to expand and scale up for long-term sustainability
• Have a mission to serve underserved youth
• Deliver programs in neighborhoods, sometimes in non-traditional spaces, such as rec centers, libraries, public housing estates, or places of worship
• Provide stipends to older students to begin teaching their younger counterparts