The American Theatre Wing (Heather Hitchens, President and CEO) announced today the recipients of the 2021 Andrew Lloyd Webber Initiative Classroom Resources Grants. Grant requests of up to $50,000 were considered for K-12 public schools, with nearly 135 applications received from across 35 states and just over $6 million dollars in requested funding. This year’s recipients are: Bronx Charter School for the Arts (Bronx, NY), Calumet New Tech High School (Gary, Indiana), Central Middle School (Weslaco, Texas), Jesús Moroles Expressive Arts Vanguard (Dallas, Texas), Mary R Stauffer Middle School (Downey, California), Memorial High School (West New York, New Jersey), Miami Coral Park Senior High (Miami, Florida), Morehead Elementary (Greensboro, North Carolina), Newnan High School (Newnan, Georgia), P.S. 345 Patrolman Robert Bolden (Brooklyn, New York), PS214K (Brooklyn, New York), and Taos High School (Taos, New Mexico).
The Classroom Resources Grants are an annual investment in Public Schools to help drama teachers get more of the resources they need to strengthen drama instruction in their schools. Funding is provided directly to under-resourced public schools to provide musical instruments, lighting equipment, sound equipment, costumes, and other theatrical resources to enhance the education and training of its students. Since the launch of the Andrew Lloyd Webber Initiative, the American Theatre Wing has distributed more than $2.3 million dollars in grants, scholarships, and support to students and schools nationwide to ensure more young people from underrepresented communities get access to theatre.
“I don’t know anyone in our community who lacks an intrinsic understanding of the giant impact that access to the arts can have on a student’s life. By ensuring this access, we don’t just help instill a lifelong appreciation for theatre; we also support empathy-building, problem-solving, creative-thinking, and a whole range of crucial life skills. We are so proud to support these 12 Title 1 schools and their educators, who go above and beyond to provide quality arts education to their communities,” said Heather Hitchens, President and CEO of the American Theatre Wing.
The Andrew Lloyd Webber Initiative (ALWI) was created in 2016 with seed funding from the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation to aid and abet systemic change in the American Theatre by infusing new resources into the theatre ecosystem in order to bolster the pipeline for underrepresented talent on stage and off. The three components of the initiative are annual Classroom Resources Grants, Training Scholarships for middle and high school students covering the costs to attend summer study and after school training programs, and University Scholarships providing financial support of $40,000 over 4 years for students to pursue theater studies at the University level.
Those wishing to join the Wing in their efforts to provide these critical opportunities for young people can contact the American Theatre Wing’s Director of Development, Laura Michele Talbot (laura@thewing.org).
