A new coalition to support art education is forming in Lee County.
ACE — Arts for a Complete Education — Coalition plans to bring together a broad cross section of community leaders and members within and outside of the arts and education who share a common interest in arts and arts education. The challenge of an arts education coalition is to create partnerships with the school board, superintendent and district administrators to create, support and sustain the best possible education for the community’s children, organizers said. ACE Coalitions, then, partner with their county’s educational leadership and advocate on behalf of arts education in their local schools and communities.
The first meeting will be this Friday, May 1, from 6:15 p.m. to 8 p.m., located at FGCU’s Academic Building #5, Room 112.
Organizers said they would like to see representation from as many schools/ business/ organizations as possible. This is not a rally, so representation is more important than huge numbers of people.
The agenda for this meeting includes the development of a mission and vision; short and long term goals; how to create strategies; how to implement an action plan; begin to determine who our members / leaders are; and much open discussion.
Special guest speakers will include Susan Burke, the executive director of Florida Alliance for Arts Education, and Cindy Balistreri, VP of Education for FAAE. They come to us from Sarasota and their experiences with arts advocacy and ACE.
If you have questions, contact jussitd@gmail.com. from your HOME email.

Source: Alliance For the Arts