Story Tapestries, Inc.

This will be my 3rd year of support for Story Tapestries. Being semi-retired now I am careful about where my money goes. With Story Tapestries I know my money is well spent. Story Tapestries evolves every year. They have a full spectrum of programs for the pre-K child, through H.S., and seniors. They create understanding using their skills to help the audience grasp the tools to communicate their own personal desires and ambitions. The mentoring programs they provide to educate administrative staff, teachers, and community centers offer new effective solutions to improve the interactive environment between peers community, and students. As evidenced in their history these dynamic formats will continue to evolve and set the bar high for others to follow. Along with everything else they thought quickly and pivoted to use a broader programming using more a more inventive "Virtual Format". This organization is always fresh and amazing. Money very well spent! Sincerely, Rick Feldman, CPO

Story Tapestries has done an amazing job for the past 11 years! They have incredibly creative artists who have worked with all ages and communities. During the pandemic, Story Tapestries provided over 9,000 arts and activities kits specially designed for children and their families as well as kits for the aging. Story Tapestries also leads the Amplify US! initiative, providing a space for people of all ages to hold courageous conversations about racial equity.
Story Tapestries deserves to be one of the Great NonProfits!

Story Tapestries is a Montgomery County based non-profit organization that provides arts-centered and arts-integrated performances, workshops, and residencies to youth, educators, families, and seniors throughout Maryland and beyond. In 2020 alone, Story Tapestries has served over 358,000 individuals.
For me, what recommends Story Tapestries as a consummately fundable organization are several features:
• A set of core values that include providing access to the arts; fostering a stronger sense of community; supporting positive mental and physical health; and making educational experiences more inclusive and therefore educational achievement more accessible for youth.
• Educational programs that put the joy in teaching across the curriculum to develop critical thinking skills, social-emotional learning, and workforce readiness.
• A results-based assessment approach that focuses on children and all those that impact them.
• A steadfast commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion in their program content and delivery, including trauma response and conflict resolution.
• An extraordinary ability to flexibly “go with the flow” during the COVID pandemic, artfully employing every delivery system to continue providing services, both planned and emerging.

Where this mission would be daunting to many, it is only foundation and beginning for Story Tapestries, which, with a solid foundation, inspired leadership, and an active board in place, is positioned to continue and expand as they develop a more creative, civil, compassionate, and thoughtful children, families, schools, and communities.

I had the great pleasure to meet Arianna and learn about Story Tapestries at a Community Meeting in Gaithersburg to discuss the rise of hate crimes in the County. After that, I attended several “Threads of Change” events hosted by Story Tapestries and had the opportunity to learn more about the organization that was founded and is run by Arianna. I truly believe in the work they are doing and in the approach of Story Tapestries to use the arts to address issues such as the achievement gap facing youth and our communities locally and nationally. For this reason I became a member of the Board of Directors and have been actively advocating for the organization since summer 2018.

Story Tapestries is truly authentic in the way they engage with their supporters and constituents. They're also open collaborators who are not afraid to break the mold, which is sorely needed in the nonprofit/philanthropic sector.

Story Tapestries' core values include: providing access to the arts; fostering a stronger sense of community; supporting positive mental and physical health; and making educational experiences more inclusive and therefore educational achievement more accessible for youth.
Proof of this occurred at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, Story Tapestries quickly pivoted to continue providing services virtually, providing both planned residencies and summer camps and classes to under-resourced youth, including youth experiencing housing instability. To meet changing needs and to fill an ongoing gap in access to supplies, Story Tapestries has provided over 9,000 arts and activities kits specially designed for children and their families as well as kits for the aging. Their innovation, compassion, and talents touch so many - children, parents, grandparents, teachers, and all community members. Take a look and see the impact they have on a huge population.

Story Tapestry helped teach our children through the arts. They helped our children learn how to express their emotions and feelings through the use of stories. During COVID, they brought these classes virtually to our children. Our children were very excited about working with the artist. They would ask when they would be seeing her again!!
An exceptional program! We look forward to working with Story Tapestry again!!!

As a teacher who dabbles in the arts myself, I work to incorporate art into my lessons through choice boards which allow for creative writing assignments, advertisements, videos, and more, but having the opportunity to foster the arts in our students often gets overlooked. The students at this school do not get many chances to develop their artistic abilities, but they are, in fact, very artistic. With this program, I have seen shy students come out of their shells and get involved, I have seen students struggling emotionally laugh and joke, and I have seen students who often do not engage, become engaged.

Story Tapestries has offered our students experiences that they otherwise would not have had, and that is a gift.

Story Tapestries is a Montgomery County based non-profit organization that provides arts-centered and arts-integrated performances, workshops, and residencies to youth, educators, families, and seniors throughout Maryland and beyond. We were one of the lucky child care providers that received their services over the summer. Our children enjoyed the artist in residency program and our staff learned a lot from the virtual workshops.

Story Tapestries constantly steps up and supports the community no matter what! They are always looking for ways. Recently, I helped pack up 352 art and literacy kits. It made me smile to see the look on the kids and adults faces as we delivered them to 6 Early Childhood Centers across the region.

Julianna Ross Queiroz

It has been incredible to watch this organization grow over the years. Arianna Ross founded the organization in 2010 when she was seeing the disparities in literacy and STEM education when serving children from low-income households. Story Tapestries is a Montgomery County-based non-profit organization that provides arts-centered and arts-integrated performances, workshops, and residencies to youth and communities throughout Maryland and beyond. Story Tapestries has grown steadily to serve 184,000 individuals in 2019 alone, and over 840,000 in its 10-year history. Arts-focused educational strategies break down barriers so all learners may benefit and provide multiple means of expression so each individual gains the confidence and competency to effectively share their own story. These approaches are especially beneficial for youth who speak English as a second language, for those with special needs, and for children living in vulnerable circumstances. In addition, Story Tapestries leads the Amplify US initiative, which is a workshop and performance series that provides brave spaces to hold courageous conversations about racial equity and provide places for the voiceless to be heard.

The name of Ms. Arianna Ross’ educational nonprofit, Story Tapestries, is apt as the tale of her life. She has traveled over much of the world, especially in Asia and South America, where she has absorbed many traditional types of local customs. She has portrayed what she has seen through dance, costuming and acrobatics. As an educator, she exposes young students to the magical diversity of the world. Working in the inner city much of the time, she exposes students to nations and to a world that they would normally never experience. I am also an educator who has worked with inner city students. I can observe how Ms. Ross’ programs can be broken into many types of educational classes for different age students. They are exposed to other lives and worlds through patches of peoples who are woven into one world. Ms. Ross’ non-profit expands teachers’ and students’ horizons beyond finances and living conditions. They now have the ability to travel near and far through the educational experiences she provides. She literally weaves tapestries of life experiences into her stories. Through the efforts of the Story Tapestries Board, she has a fiscally responsible company. She has received many grants because of the viability of Story Tapestries. The nonprofit corporation is supported by Montgomery County and Maryland’s Arts and Humanities Councils. I would give Story Tapestries a 5-star rating for their achievements in the ten years Ms. Ross has led this company.

Phyllis Roth
Former educator, donor and supporter

I have known Arianna Ross for many years. She is not only a very talented storyteller but also a gifted person who can spread wonderful arts knowledge to a wide community of children. This is particularly important for underserved communities.
Arianna has lived and worked in many foreign lands. She has knowledge and interest in multi-cultural ideas. This inspires many of her programs. I heartily endorse her wonderful Story Tapestries programs.

I first became involved with Story Tapestries when my high need school was unable to access funding to provide arts enriched programming that other schools could. Arianna Ross stepped in and told me about this company she was starting for schools just like mine, and the partnership has grown and expanded from there. The school I was at still benefits from programs they never would have had access to before- even after I have changed counties. I was so impressed with the way my students grew with these programs that I continued the partnership in my new county. I even believed in Story Tapestries' accomplishments so much, with how they enabled all under-served communities to have equitable access and a voice, that I became a board member. I'm proud to be part of the change the world needs.

I have volunteered with Story Tapestries for more than 4 years and it feels wonderful to see its growth. Story Tapestries has grown steadily to serve 184,000 individuals in 2019 alone, and over 840,000 in its 10-year history. This is commendable and being a social impact professional myself, I can acknowledge this confidently.

"Physical sensation and emotion are essential components of the mind, as integral to thought and learning as logic is. In fact, logic may not be possible without them (Damasio, 2003; Lakoff & Johnson, 1999). It is ironic, then, that the arts are frequently dismissed as “merely” emotional, not cognitive. Their emotional content is part of what makes them cognitively powerful." Story Tapestries' arts-focused educational strategies do an amazing job at breaking down barriers so all learners can benefit and provide multiple means of expression so each individual gains the confidence and competency to effectively share their own story. These approaches are especially beneficial for youth who speak English as a second language, for those with special needs, and for children living in vulnerable circumstances.

Our society needs organizations like Story Tapestries. I would request everyone to help this wonderful organization grow and reach out to more and more communities in need!!

Mamali Mohapatra
New York

It is well documented that, in traditional schools, children in underserved communities gain less skills and understandings in literacy and STEM than “more advantaged” children. It is also documented that immersion in the arts is a teaching/learning strategy that is effective in reducing this gap, as well as enhancing learning for all.
Story Tapestries is an organization that applies these two research-based ideas to provide arts-centered and arts-integrated performances, workshops, and residencies throughout Maryland and beyond. The Story Tapestries way is to use best practices to provide children with skills and competency to effectively share their own stories, tapping their wisdom and skills while illuminating the bravery of all involved to hold courageous conversations about equity in places for the voiceless to be heard. What does this have to do with literacy and STEAM? Everything! Confident children succeed.
Story Tapestries’ success in serving increasing numbers of individuals over the past 10 years is a testament to their very smart and intentional training of session leaders who help to break down barriers. Story Tapestries is poised to become a cultural leader on the post COVID educational scene, offering equitable and rich literacy and STEAM experiences while modeling the heavy lifting of embedding social justice and change in education.

As a retired police officer and long-time community member, I actively support those non-profit organizations that seek to build bridges of equity and promote educational growth. For that reason, I gladly partner with Story Tapestries, an arts service organization that serves low-income families across the greater Washington area. They work with community members using a variety of elements in the performing arts to develop individual skills and artistic literacy. Developing individuals to maximize their potential is something I care about. I am particularly proud to support Story Tapestries and would encourage everyone to see how they could help such a wonderful organization as well.

Michael Glassick
Glendale, California

When I received the invitation to the online celebration of the 10th anniversary of Story Tapestries, I thought back to its very beginnings 10 years ago. Back then I had heard of Arianna Ross as a master storyteller who had honed her art in India, Egypt, and South America, and was rooting for her as she began her expansion into arts education. Looking back now from the vantage of 10 years, it is simply amazing to me what she and the team that she assembled have managed to accomplish. Through the spoken word, movement, and theater, Story Tapestries has worked together with children, young people and their families, and families and their communities to make their voices heard and, by so doing, make others listen. It is gratifying that Story Tapestries has provided many young people, including so many living in underserved environments and who too often are marginalized in society, with the tools that enable them to express themselves. This is more than arts education, and more than education. It is nothing less than building confidence and self-esteem that hopefully will last a lifetime. Story Tapestries needs now to get the infusion of additional support to solidify its efforts and be able to expand its outreach within its geographic area of focus and beyond.