I won a $100,000 grant!

In the spring of 2016, I submitted a proposal for the Farmers Insurance "Thank America's Teachers" Dream Big Grant Contest.  The proposal was to turn underutilized areas of our school playground into arts integrated play spaces. We were going to transform an old batters cage into an outdoor stage.  We were going to transform drainage ditches into rain gardens.  A muddy hillside would become an amphitheater.  We would add musical instruments and paint murals.  And we would hire an artist to teach our students to create mosaics to cover the entrance staircase.  We were chosen as one of 15 national finalists in August and in October we got our entire community to vote for our idea. 

Voting lasted for a month.  We got 2 status updates along the way and each time we were in first place!  In December it was announced that BMA was one of the six winners of the $100,000 grant!  Since that time, a flurry of work has been taking place on the BMA playground.  Local artists added their own flair to the plan and it has been exciting to watch the transformation take place.

This is a photo of the outdoor stage when it was almost finished.  I love the use of metal to create the surround.  The addition of emoji comedy/tragedy masks is one of my favorite parts! The completed stage has a chalk board background so kids can draw their own scenery!

We built an amphitheater in an unused corner of the playground.

The mosaics for the staircase were created with the help of EVERY BMA student in kindergarten through 5th grade during the spring of 2017. 

 The idea was a river flowing through a field of flowers, representing artistic ideas flowing and feeding new ideas.

Parents and students helped paint playground games on a large asphalt pad on the playground.

Here is my son helping!

We painted empty frames for chalk art!

 We also painted the track that circles around the playground.

 We hired a professional artist, Curtis Glover, to paint two murals that are visible from the playground.  These are the doors that lead back into the building from the playground.

 This is on the wall of the BMA dance studio.