About the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County

The Arts and Cultural Alliance is a member-powered organization that serves as an advocate for arts and culture in Sarasota County.

Founded in 1986 by a group of committed citizens, the Alliance has administered more than $10 million in grants to area artists and arts organizations. The Alliance works to ensure arts and culture remain essential to the continuing development of a vibrant, creative community.  This is achieved through arts advocacy, education and community outreach.

The Artists in Schools Program

The Artists in Schools Program of the Arts and Cultural Alliance began in 2011 to train local professional teaching artists who support student standards in the classroom through the integration of the arts across all curricula. Artists in Schools seeks local artists in dance, music, theatre, visual art, and media arts to work with K-12 students in the Sarasota County schools.

Artists attend required training to prepare them to present performances or artist residencies that are aligned with curriculum standards and utilize arts integration strategies.  They must be approved by the Alliance and school district staff for their Exploration to be included on EdExploreSRQ.com.  Their work is monitored by the Alliance as well as evaluated by K-12 teachers  and students in Gr. 4-12.

Grants are available through EdExplore to help pay for Teaching Artists to visit classrooms. Each Teaching Artist works as an independent contractor once he/she qualifies for EdExplore and has the freedom to modify Explorations to tailor them to each teacher’s needs.

Please consider utilizing a Teaching Artist in your classroom to enhance and bring to life the content that your students need to master!