Photo courtesy of grantee Dr. Šara Stranovsky
Arts for Schools Grantees to Support High-Quality Arts Programming for Buncombe’s K-12 Students
ArtsAVL awards $57,800 to 20 local arts education initiatives
August 2026 | Asheville, N.C. – ArtsAVL will award a total of $57,800 to 20 artists and arts organizations through Arts for Schools grants for the 2026-27 school year. The grant supports nonprofit arts organizations and qualified independent teaching artists in Buncombe County, providing arts-focused performances, workshops, residencies, and field trips for K-12 students. This year’s awards cover 8 in-school programs and 12 out-of-school programs. As Buncombe County schools continue to recover from Hurricane Helene, this year’s grant cycle places added emphasis on programs that support students’ resilience and access to creative outlets during this still-challenging season.
“The Arts for Schools grant will expand access to high-quality arts experiences through our afterschool programs, creating more opportunities for Asheville City Schools students to engage with local teaching artists beyond the school day,” shared Bree Clayton, Director of Communications for Asheville City Schools Foundation, a 2026 grantee organization. “As our community continues to recover from Hurricane Helene, the arts also serve as a pathway for healing, connection, and resilience by helping students process their experiences while discovering new ways to engage with the world around them.”
Each artist and organization awarded helps ensure that students in under-resourced schools and communities receive the benefit of vital arts programming.
“Arts education gives young people opportunities to explore their creativity, build confidence, and experience new ways of learning and connecting with the world around them,” said Katie Cornell, Executive Director of ArtsAVL. “Through Arts for Schools, we are investing in both our students and our local creative community by connecting schools with the incredible artists and arts organizations working right here in Buncombe County. At a time when many schools and families are still navigating the impacts of Hurricane Helene, ensuring students have meaningful access to the arts remains especially important.”
Grantee Dr. Šara Stranovsky, a trilingual multi-disciplinary artist, will bring full-body shadow stories theater to Oakley Elementary. “As a painfully shy kid who blossomed because of the arts, I know firsthand that early exposure to the arts, or learning integrated with the arts, can transform a child’s life,” she shared. “My goal is to give these young learners a thrilling first taste of the creative process—getting them up, moving their bodies, and showing them just how fun and empowering it can be.”
2026-27 Arts for Schools Grantees:
The Asheville Art Museum will offer the Buncombe County Advanced Arts Field Trip Program to upper-level visual arts students at seven high schools: A.C. Reynolds, Community, Enka, Erwin, North Buncombe, Owen, and T.C. Roberson. Museum educators will tailor each visit to classroom themes already underway, pairing gallery discussions with hands-on studio activities and introducing students to careers in the arts. The program will reach approximately 280 students.
The Asheville City Schools Foundation (ACSF) will continue its TAPAS (Teaching Artists Presenting in Asheville Schools) program. It brings arts-integrated residencies to Asheville City Schools students both during and beyond the school day. Out-of-school offerings include hands-on arts programming in extended day programs like Herring Hearts and Claxton Busy Bees, along with 10-week residencies in painting, ceramics, and mural-making through the In Real Life afterschool program.
The Asheville Community Theatre (ACT) will bring its touring production Fairy Tales & Fables to four Buncombe County Title I elementary schools. The free performances, aimed at K-2 students, feature a cast of local actors performing folklore from cultures around the world. Each show is followed by a guided discussion with performers, and teachers receive classroom activity packets to extend the learning. Grant funds support artist fees, production support, and classroom materials for the touring company.
Asheville Creative Arts Inc. will expand its Art POW! series for elementary, middle, and high school students, building on its previously funded Authentically Me program. Classes span storytelling, physical theater, puppetry, collage, and graphic design, with lessons designed to help students explore their own identities. The program will return to partner sites including Asheville Middle School, Isaac Dickson, and the Swannanoa Public Library.
The Asheville Symphony Orchestra (ASO) will present its annual Young People’s Concert on April 7, 2027, at Mars Hill University, introducing approximately 2,000 fifth graders from Asheville City and Buncombe County Schools to the full orchestra. Guest conductor Matthew Troy returns to lead this year’s program, themed “Explore the Orchestra!” and inspired in part by Leonard Bernstein’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. Grant funding supports artist fees for the Buncombe County-based musicians performing in the concerts.
The Buncombe County Schools Foundation (BCSF) will bring LEAF’s Kono Global Grooves Band to all seven district middle schools for live performances reaching the entire seventh grade population. Each 45-minute performance blends West African, blues, and folk traditions with movement, call-and-response singing, and opportunities for students to join the artists on stage. Grant funding covers artist fees for the three Buncombe County-based musicians, ensuring every seventh grader has access to the experience regardless of school location.
Colaborativa La Milpa – Raíces, based in the Emma community, will use grant funding to support its Raíces cultural arts program. Participants from Spanish-speaking households learn traditional Folklórico dance and its history in a space designed to counter the cultural isolation many feel in predominantly English-speaking schools. Older, trained dancers serve as instructors for younger participants, passing down skills and culture across generations.
Dancing Drum will bring School Drum Day and Family Drum Night to Avery’s Creek Elementary and ArtSpace Charter School. Students rotate through a circle of drums and percussion instruments during the school day, learning rhythms from West Africa, the Caribbean, and Brazil. Family Drum Night invites parents and siblings to join students in performing what they’ve learned, building connections across the school community.
Anna Kimmell is an Asheville-based director and choreographer with more than 15 years in theatre education. She will lead fourth graders at Johnston Elementary through a six-workshop residency in playwriting and performance. Students will write and stage their own short scenes, building language skills and teamwork along the way. The residency ends with a final performance for third graders, and each student takes home a copy of the script they helped write.
Laura Sellers, who holds an MFA in painting from Western Carolina University, will partner with mural artist Kitsumi Reynalte (Sketchonic Design) on a permanent mural for the foyer of Franklin School of Innovation. Visual arts and ESL students will help shape the design through workshops exploring the school’s habits of scholarship: leadership, collaboration, persistence, action, inquiry, and ethics. Students will paint alongside Reynalte in fall 2026, leaving a lasting piece that reflects their own voices.
LEAF Global Arts will use funding to support its LSS Outreach project, pairing Resident Teaching Artists with partners including the YMCA of WNC, Children First/Communities in Schools, and OpenDoors Asheville. Students in grades K-8 will take part in songwriting, drumming, dance, theater, and visual arts classes that culminate in performances open to families at no cost.
Local Cloth, Inc., a network of more than 800 fiber artists and enthusiasts, will focus its FIBR afterschool program at the Dr. Wesley Grant Sr. Southside Community Center. Led by teaching artist Emolyn Liden, students will learn knitting, felting, spinning, and dye traditions from around the world at no cost. Grant funding also supports scholarships for Local Cloth’s summer fiber arts camps, which filled to capacity this year.
North Carolina Stage Company will lead after-school theatre residencies for students with Children First/Communities in Schools of Buncombe County. Teaching artists will guide students through improvisation, storytelling, music, and design over two week-long residencies, building on a partnership formed during NC Stage’s 2025 Community Tour. The grant also supports a summer field trip to NC Stage’s theatre for a behind-the-scenes look.
OpenDoors Asheville will use grant funding to offer a range of afterschool arts classes for students from under-resourced families, including figure drawing with local artist Joseph Pearson, global arts classes with LEAF Global Arts, drama and storytelling with Asheville Creative Arts, and a fashion design course led by Genitta Sconiers of En Vogue AVL. Funding covers artist fees, supplies, and transportation, supporting OpenDoors’ broader model of removing barriers to arts access.
RiverLink will develop a new watercolor lesson for its RiverRATS out-of-school program. Students will illustrate significant life events as a winding river, using color and brushwork to reflect on change and growth. RiverLink will contract a local artist from an underserved community to help design the lesson, which will become a permanent offering for its afterschool and summer camp partners.
Dr. Šara Stranovsky, a multidisciplinary teaching artist, will lead a week-long shadow puppetry residency for all five kindergarten classrooms at Oakley Elementary, which currently has no dance or theater program. Students will explore folktales from Cuban, West African, Kenyan, and Ojibwe traditions, building paper shadow costumes and staging performances with music and narration. The residency closes with an informal sharing between classrooms.
Umoja Health, Wellness, and Justice Collective will use grant funding to support its HOPE 4 the Future program, which offers year-round arts programming for youth across Asheville City and Buncombe County Schools. Students take part in music, dance, visual arts, and cultural traditions including the John R. Hayes High Steppin’ Majorettes and Drum Corps. Funding supports teaching artists, supplies, and transportation to arts experiences.
United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County will scale up its Global Arts Club, at Hall Fletcher Elementary from 10 weeks to a full 18-week program. Teaching artists Jake LaGory and Jean-Ann Marshall will guide fourth and fifth graders through global art traditions, from Ukrainian folk painting to Cherokee-inspired basket weaving, culminating in a community art exhibition. Grant funds cover artist fees and materials for the free program.
Virtuous Music, led by singer-songwriter Kia Rice, will partner with the HOPE 4 the Future program to lead two songwriting clubs for students over six weeks. Participants will learn the basics of songwriting and work toward recording a finished song they can keep. Grant funding covers artist fees, recording costs, and materials for the small-group sessions.
Youth OUTright WNC Inc will use grant funding to expand art-based programming across its Weekly Wednesdays and Constellations series for LGBTQI+ youth ages 11-24. Funding supports field trips to local cultural sites, including the Asheville Art Museum and the Museum of the Cherokee People, along with an internal curriculum covering printmaking, quilt making, and cyanotype nature art. Transportation support ensures youth throughout Buncombe County can take part.
ArtsAVL is thankful for the sponsors that support the Arts for Schools Grant: Dogwood Health Trust, Wanda & Jim Moran Foundation, Gail & Brian McCarthy, Karen & Robert Milnes, and Joe & Janice Brumit.
You can learn more about ArtsAVL’s Arts for Schools grant program at artsavl.org/schools. The next funding cycle will open in spring 2027.