A message to the CAE Community

Dear Friends,

I hope this message finds you and your families healthy and safe. Earlier this month, we shared news about The Center for Arts Education’s (CAE) exciting affiliation with Partnership with Children (PWC), increasing not only our administrative and management capacity but also our collective footprint in New York City schools.

Now, weeks later, we find ourselves navigating dramatic changes, including the unprecedented shutdown of the city’s schools. In this new reality, NYC public schools are trying to educate over a million students remotely, and much of CAE’s work has come to a temporary pause. We have turned our attention to safeguarding the emotional benefits, the social connections, and the feelings of creativity and empowerment that only the arts can bring.

In order to remain true to our mission to ensure that quality arts instruction is part of every NYC public school student’s pre-K-12 education, we are adapting and building.

Our team is working with the Department of Education and our partner schools to bring virtual arts learning sessions to students. Now that CAE is affiliated with PWC, our reach is over 30,000 students in 100 schools, and we are creating new enrichment and coaching programs to support our schools, families, and teachers. And we are already building new ways to provide support and instruction during the eventual reentry and recovery.

Unfortunately, but inevitably, we had to cancel our Spring Gala, which would have been the first joint event with PWC to provide extensive funding for our work. We enthusiastically look forward to a celebratory 2021 event once the environment has shifted.

Thank you to our CAE community—with your help, we can continue to meet the needs of all of our constituents during and after these challenging times.

With gratitude,

Margaret Crotty
Executive Director & CEO
Partnership with Children & The Center for Arts Education