Arts For The Schools, new program, The Mural Project, completed our first mural in the new downtown park on Church Street. The mural was completed in a mural camp where students learned how to plan, design and paint a mural. Students worked for 8 days on the mural and in the end created a 120 linear foot by 6 foot tall mural.  The students were guided to choose a theme in three priority areas for The Mural Project; of Environmental Stewardship, Local History or Cultural Heritage. A core group of 9 middle school and high school students worked for over 45 hours on the mural and many others teens dropped in to paint and participate. A total of 20 students helped during the week, (one child as young as five).

The camp was completed in partnership with Tridentata Arts, a grassroots group of artists.

Many donors helped to support the mural through financial or in-kind donations including the Contractor's Association of Truckee Tahoe, Queen of Hearts,  Elements Painting, Mark Tanner Construction, Truckee Donner Recreation & Park District.

Arts For The Schools hosted Kaki King in schools at the end of the school year in June.  Students from elementary to high school age were amazed by her guitar playing and interactive projection mapping performance. Kaki reached 947 students with her unique performance. Thank you Kaki for coming to Truckee and Tahoe!

We are excited to bring Kaki back to Tahoe in the fall.  Look for more information soon.

​Arts For the Schools Visual Arts program students, will showcase their best art pieces from their 14-week art class taught by Arts for The Schools, at the annual Artists in Bloom show in June.  Artist in Bloom is a special opportunity for us to showcase your child’s art and encourage young artists to keep creating.  The art will be displayed June 16th-18th.  
​A special invite will be coming soon to parents.  More details to come!

The first inaugural Mexican Heritage Festival was a very special event with live music, local arts, crafts, food, and games by LatinX-owned business.  Almost 500 people attended the event and it was a special day honoring Mexican cultural, music, food, and art.   The vendors included Shop Raices, Hilo Del Sol, Casa Baeza, El Toro Bravo, the Town of Truckee Keep Truckee Green, TTUSD, and so many more. There was a special booth with information about Mexican Independence Day.

Look for the announcement of the second annual festival dates and artists in the Spring of 2022!

Thank You to our Sponsors!!!

Arts For The Schools will host our first Mexican Heritage Festival on October 9, 2021 in honor of the national Hispanic Heritage month. The festival will honor Latino cultural traditions and will include live music, dance, arts, artisan vendors, crafts, food and games.  In addition to supporting and celebrating Mexican artists, the festival will be an opportunity to promote and support local and Mexican-owned businesses, to increase their economic stability during Truckee’s economic off-season (which runs in the fall September – Nov).
 
The festival will be the first of its kind ever-held in Truckee, and include live performances; arts and crafts; food and games. At the heart of the festival will be a stage with live performances with regional and California performers including Mariachi and folk musicians and traditional Mexican Ballet Folklórico.  Live performances and activities will occur during the day from 12-8pm.  Local Mexican restaurants and business owners will sell food and drinks.  Arts, crafts, and games will be open to everyone including lotería.  In booths throughout the festival, local small-business vendors will be selling goods available to purchase such as clothing and jewelry.
 
A dedicated booth will house a festival learning center that will include a display and kids activities to learn about the history of Mexican Independence Day, and Hispanic Heritage Month.  We will be collecting stories from local residents about their lives in Truckee.

The ideal candidate will have a minimum of five years’ experience teaching visual art to children, excellent curriculum planning skills, be flexible and organized, be kind and friendly, with the ability to create lesson plans that enable students to gain a deep understanding of art utilizing more than one art form and media. The position is responsible for teaching visual arts curriculum in a variety of school classrooms. 

POSITION SUMMARY:
Arts For The Schools is a 36-year-old non-profit committed to cultural learning and community building. Arts For The Schools mission is to inspire, teach and build our rural communities through equitable access to the arts and arts education. The position is responsible for managing and coordinating Arts For The Schools’ new annual Mexican Heritage Festival. This position is responsible for performing highly-skilled administrative and event duties with expertise in events, customer service, and clerical skills.  The position is a temporary, contract, remote position with the potential to lead to future events management work.

Arts For The Schools 6th annual Wooden Boat Challenge is Saturday, Aug 14th from 11am-6pm at Commons Beach in Tahoe City.  Check out this crazy competition!  Teams of four, have three hours to build a boat, and then test their wit and skill by racing them on Lake Tahoe!  Bring the whole family to watch the race and support the cause, by joining the kids crafts, face painting, or buying lunch or a cool beverage in the food and beer tent.

• Admission is free! Bring your chair and join us for the whole day on Saturday, Aug14th, 11am to 6pm at Commons Beach in Tahoe City. 
• Support the cause by buying lunch or a cold beverage in the food or beer tent, or doing a kids craft or face painting.  Food Booth will have hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, cookies, cool drinks, boxed water (to save the environment) and treats.
• All of the proceeds will go directly to Arts For The Schools programming for kids.
• ​Special THANKS to: Truckee Tahoe Lumber Company the Wooden Boat Challenge LEAD SPONSOR, and KEY EVENT SPONSORS Hartline Construction, McEneaney Construction, Mountain Hardware and Sports, and Jim Morrison Construction.

We are excited to announce that the 36th onSTAGE Live season will continue this fall.  We are working with agents and artists from all over the US to plan live performances and master classes for our region.

We are working with state-wide partners on best practices and planning to ensure the safety of all audience members with enhanced safety and sanitation protocols. 

We already have several amazing artists booked to perform, and look forward to enjoying live performances with you again!

Look for the season announcement, ticket sales and more details in October!

Arts For The Schools Announces New Partnership to Develop Public Art Murals In North Lake Tahoe
[Truckee, CA] – Arts For The Schools is honored to announce a new a public art project in partnership with Dia de los Muertos North Lake Tahoe and the North Tahoe Business Association.  The Mural Project, a program of Arts For The Schools, is a collaboration to beautify the concrete walls located in front of businesses with artistic murals, in the heart of North Lake Tahoe communities.  The art will convey important local themes of environmental stewardship, history and cultural heritage, with the goal of bringing attention to local small businesses. The hope is the art will add to North Lake Tahoe community identity for years to come.

When 2020 began, Arts For The Schools never expected what was to come.  We are honored to have been able to continue to teach students online, provide community art classes online to parents and children at home, and even offer some digital live performances!

We worked tirelessly to ensure our programs could continue even with tremendous budget cuts.  Read about the impact we had on students and the community in 2020 in our annual report here. 

Arts For The Schools was founded, 36 years ago, to improve access to the arts, improve cultural awareness and cultural competence among our youth and our rural communities.  The foundational tenets of our work has been providing cultural learning opportunities for our children and the public, and a space for the arts to be the pathway to community building and learning.  
 
In 2015 our vision pivoted more towards racial equity, and equitable access became our guiding principle in all of our work and programs.  We uphold these tenets, by delivering our programs and resources equitably among those we serve and take in account equity in all of our decisions, distribution of resources and programming.  Since 2015, we have implemented data tracking tools to evaluate and ensure accountability and expand transparency in our programs.