THE CIVIC CIRCLE REACHED close to 1,000 students in grades 3-12 this year, continuing our expansion into Middle and High Schools, and offering 325 sessions of civic arts programming to low-income students in Montgomery County.
Highlights of the fall semester included workshops and community civic events that took advantage of the election as a teachable moment. Students at Silver Spring International Middle School and Montgomery Blair High School explored voting and democracy through poetry and dance with teaching artists Malachi Byrd and Carolina Hernandez.
Our Democracy Concert at Busboys & Poets in Takoma Park showcased student songs, poems and visual art about elections and voting, and featured collaborations with Action Youth Media, Arts on the Block, Carpe Diem Arts, and Liberty’s Promise. Students in Grades 3-5 also wrote civic songs with teaching artists Munit Mesfin and Gabrielle Zwi in after-school workshops offered through Excel Beyond the Bell. And students in Grades K-5 celebrated Hispanic Heritage through dance in a residency offered through Montgomery Housing Partnership.
WE ARE EXTREMELY HONORED to be among eight Montgomery County nonprofits receiving general operating support through the Maryland Humanities SHINE (Strengthening the Humanities Investment in Nonprofits for Equity) Grants Program. This grant comes at a crucial moment for our organization and for civic learning, and will enable us to continue building capacity at a period of rapid growth. We are also thrilled to announce expanded funding through the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County’s Wheaton Cultural Project Grants program, and through the Newburger-Schwartz Family Foundation, which will enable us to bring our innovative civic arts program to a growing number of students in Montgomery County. Thank you!
THIS IS YOUR LAST DAY to join The Civic Circle’s T-Shirt fundraiser, which will directly underwrite our civic arts workshops and T-Shirts for our students. This inspiring T-Shirt is not available in stores, and is otherwise not for sale. Click HERE or scan the QR code below to elevate both your wardrobe and civic learning!
AS THE YEAR DRAWS TO A CLOSE, we extend gratitude to the many collaborators and funders who make it possible for us to empower youth civic participation through the arts. In addition to the supporters listed above, we thank the Montgomery County Recreation Department’s Excel Beyond the Bell program, the Maryland State Arts Council, Montgomery Housing Partnership, RTI International, the Takoma Foundation, and Transform Mid-Atlantic. If you want to end the year “civics strong,” and support democracy and civic learning, please click HERE or on the button below.