RFP: Improving Arts Education for Public and Private Preschools with an Emphasis on Low to Modest Income Families Grant

The Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation aims to enhance arts education for public and private preschools, focusing on low to modest income families. By providing grants of $20,000 to $25,000, the foundation supports the purchase of art supplies, professional development for preschool teachers, and assessment of arts-related learning outcomes. The initiative emphasizes the importance of creative expression for child development, promoting cognitive skills, cultural awareness, and language proficiency while encouraging partnerships with established arts organizations.

RFP: Improving Arts Education for Public and Private Preschools with an Emphasis on Low to Modest Income Families
High-achieving preschools know that art is a natural activity to support the free play and learning by doing of children. The freedom to manipulate different materials in an organic and unstructured way allows for exploration and experimentation. Art enables preschool children to practice a wide range of valuable skills for life and learning. Free expression is also suitable for health and well-being. Children need creative outlets to relieve stress and work through life’s problems. Specifically,
The Castle Foundation encourages art education to:

• Refine basic motor skills such as grasping pencils, crayons, paintbrushes, and chalk;

The arts promote critical cognitive development, such as pattern use, learning cause and effect, critical thinking, and planning;Preschools with arts education increase awareness of Hawaii cultural diversity;Math concepts such as size, shape, making comparisons, counting, and spatial reasons are fostered by robust arts programs;Language skills benefit from listening, open-ended questions, and mastering a more extensive vocabulary to describe the world;Arts education often has enhanced impact on lower-income students.
The applications might propose grants of up to $20,000- $25,000 to purchase art supplies, conduct professional development of preschool teachers, or assess outcomes of arts-related early learning. Other arts activities can be discussed with the Foundation’s executive director. The Castle Foundation is also interested in partnering with a large and well-run arts education organization to support teacher training for the arts in the pre-K classroom. Maui’s superb Hui No’eau Visual Arts Center is a fine example of an organization committed to teacher education and providing a venue for arts education for preschools and kindergartens. This organization has been a Castle Foundation grantee for many years.

Eligibility

The Castle Foundation invites applications from accredited preschools that desire to improve existing arts programs or to initiate them as part of overall early education. Grant requests will be considered only from organizations that are classified by the IRS as 501(c)(3), tax exempt agencies, and not private foundations.However, projects that include a public sector partner are encouraged, as it is recognized that public agencies have responsibilities in these areas and are important partners in developing early childhood programs, particularly at the system level.The fiscal agent for such projects, however, must be a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization.

Ineligibility

The Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation is not an international funder and applications are not accepted outside the U.S.The Foundation only rarely funds in the U.S. outside Hawaii. Public or private high schools, middle schools, or elementary schoolsCharter Schools, except for pre-school teacher educationEndowmentsRegular operating costs such as salaries, rents, or maintenanceMore than 30-40% of a total project costPrograms not open to all racial and ethnic groupsProjects in which parents and the community have not been appropriately involved in planning and fundingPublication and media projectsOrganizations outside Hawai‘i which do not serve Hawaii’s needs Teacher and student scholarships for travel, or conference attendanceVideo projectsRegular annual fund drives, sponsorships, or special eventsCapital campaigns to build facilities not related to early educationIndividualsPolitical events, campaigns and sponsorshipsProposals submitted by government entities, such as public and charter schools, will not be considered.