Performing Arts Workshop

Performing Arts Workshop (PAW) helps young people develop critical thinking, creative expression, and basic learning skills through the arts, primarily seeking to serve at-risk, inner-city teens in San Francisco. PAW’s methodology teaches students in grades K-12 through its signature Artists-in-Schools and Artists-in-Communities residency programs, reaching over 9,000 young people in public schools, after-school programs, community centers, juvenile detention centers, and transitional housing programs. PAW is a leader in arts education advocacy and the broader education reform movement; its advocacy program utilizes research and the conviction that every child deserves to benefit from the arts to influence policymakers and build grassroots coalitions to support the arts in schools and communities. Renewed general operating support would enable this high-performing arts education provider to be a responsive and responsible organization in a field that is changing rapidly under the weight of state and national education budget cuts.