TakePART Arts Festival, Saturday May 31 with free family–friendly activities at Prairie Vista Middle School, Hawthorne; P.S. ARTS initiative with support from five local school districts and the Herb Alpert Foundation promotes arts in the classroom

TakePART Arts Festival on Saturday, May 31st 2014
with free, family–friendly activities
at Prairie Vista Middle School, Hawthorne

The P.S. ARTS initiative, with support from five local school districts and the Herb Alpert Foundation, promotes arts in the classroom.

Venice, CA – The TakePART Arts Festival will be held on Saturday, May 31st from 10:00am – 2:00pm at Prairie Vista Middle School in Hawthorne (13600 Prairie Avenue, Hawthorne, CA 90250). The free, family–friendly event will include hands–on art activities, artist workshops, a student art exhibition, and dance, music, and theater performances. An estimated 2,500 attendees throughout the day are expected including students, families, and community leaders from across the Centinela Valley region.

“I am so excited for this year’s TakePART Arts Festival at Prairie Vista Middle School in the Hawthorne School District. Our leadership team and commitment to the arts in this region just keeps growing, and this event is a celebration of all the hard work and heart that has gone into TakePART,” says P.S. ARTS Executive Director of Education & Programs Dr. Kristen Paglia.

The Festival is an integral component of the TakePART (Public–school Arts Regional Team) initiative, formed as a collective vision promoting the arts as essential to community life in the Centinela Valley region. TakePART provides music, theater, and visual arts programs for students in the five participating school districts; this model ensures that these students have equal access to quality arts opportunities and enter middle and high school prepared for advanced study in the arts.

“The Hawthorne School District is thrilled to host this year’s Festival. The Festival represents an opportunity to showcase student creativity and to unite our communities around an appreciation of the arts. We are so very grateful to be able to play a part in organizing this event and to have such outstanding partners to work with in doing so,” says Assistant Superintendant of the Hawthorne School District Dr. Brian Markarian.

With seed funding from the Herb Alpert Foundation, P.S. ARTS, a nonprofit organization that provides arts education to public schools, coordinates the initiative comprised of regional service providers, community organizations, funders, and the Centinela Valley Union High School, Hawthorne, Lawndale Elementary, Lennox, and Wiseburn school districts.

“The Herb Alpert Foundation is proud to support P.S. Arts, an exemplar arts organization and teaching model, reaching deep and wide into the central and southern California educational system. We are delighted to play a role in coordinating the TakePART initiative that provides children with a robust sequential arts program that offers both creative and cognitive skills and thrilled to participate in the 3rd annual TakePART Arts Festival. This unique celebration is an opportunity to bring children, their families and community together to engage in a rich, rewarding and memorable day of diverse arts experiences,“ says Herb Alpert Foundation President Rona Sebastian.

About P.S. ARTS
Since 1991, P.S. ARTS has provided arts programs to underserved public schools throughout Southern and Central California. P.S. ARTS currently serves more than 15,000 elementary and middle school students through in–school programming and an additional 1,000 children through after-school and enrichment programs. For more information, visit www.psarts.org.

About TakePART
The TakePART initiative was launched in 2010 as a collaborative effort to bring comprehensive arts education programs to communities throughout the Centinela Valley region. Facilitated by P.S. ARTS with major support from the Herb Alpert Foundation, TakePART is a collaboration of community, arts, and philanthropic partners, along with the Centinela Valley Union High School District, Hawthorne School District, Lawndale Elementary School District, Lennox School District and Wiseburn School District. For more information about the Herb Alpert Foundation, visit www.herbalpertfoundation.org.