Community School Of The Arts

Programs: The community school of the arts ("the school") was established in 1991 as a non-profit organization to provide affordable quality instruction in the visual and performing arts to children of varied socio-economic backgrounds in knox county and the surrounding region, particularly those from underserved inner-city and rural areas. The school officially opened its doors in september 1992, offering beginning piano lessons twice a week to a student body of 22 youngsters from east knoxville, all of whom attended on full financial aid. After only two years of operation, the school received full accreditation as a member of the national guild of community schools of the arts, making it one of three such accredited institutions in the state of tennessee. The school was also honored to receive the mayor's arts award in the category of education and special projects in 1995 and 1997. The school offers private, one-on-one instructions in the discipline of piano, violin, brass instruments and voice as well as group classes in the visual arts, modern dance and choral performance in an after- school program conducted by professional, part-time faculty five days a week (monday through friday). Over one hundred students were enrolled during the 2016-2017 school year; 98% attended free of charge, based solely on financial need. The school also serves an additional 60 children per week through partnerships with other non-profit organizations, providing offsite art and music therapy classes to students at green magnet steam academy, the crutcher memorial youth enrichment center, and the knox county homeless tutoring project. In addition to its regular weekly schedule of classes and offsite programs, the school offers side-by-side an annual apprenticeship program which pairs scholarship students in the visual arts program with a professional, working artist in his or her studio. Artist and student work side-by-side to create original pieces of art, which are displayed in a full-scale exhibit at benefit galleries. Participating artists include richard jolley, tommie rush, peter rose, marcia goldenstein, and andrew saftel. Student turnover at the school is minimal: the average length of enrollment for a student is 7 years; over one hundred students have graduated from the program as seniors, all of whom have gone on to higher education, some with scholarship assistance from the school.