Arts4All Florida, Inc.
Creating connections to and through accessible arts.
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Arts4All Florida (formerly VSA Florida) addresses four needs in the state of Florida: 1) Florida’s students with disabilities receive less arts instruction that their peers without disabilities. 2) There is a lack of opportunities and training for people with disabilities to pursue careers in the arts. 3) Families of people with disabilities lack activities that involve and engage them as a family in the arts. 4) Arts educators do not receive adequate training for including people with disabilities in arts activities during their undergraduate coursework or continuing education.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Professional Development
Arts4All Florida’s professional development program provides in-person workshops, webinars, and digital resources to pre-service and in-service classroom teachers, teaching artists, and cultural organization staff. The goal of the professional development program is to prepare educators to better include people with disabilities in arts classes and cultural activities, enabling participants to receive the same cognitive, social, and creative thinking benefits arts experiences provide to their typically-developing peers.
In-person trainings for 2017-2018 included: Inclusive Practices in the Arts- this training presents information on developing lessons using Universal Design for Learning guidelines and Differentiated Instruction that is specific to the arts, incorporating accommodations, assessing the performance of students with disabilities in the arts., and making adapted art tools; Educating for All- this training provides tips for developing lessons and programs that allow all students to be successful in arts learning experiences and explores specific accommodations and instruction strategies for including students with disabilities in the arts; Start with the Arts- this training focuses on the Start with the Arts curriculum resource guide, an early childhood curriculum designed by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which builds and strengthens specific skills in literacy through the arts; and Access for All- this training for cultural arts organizations presents information on various disabilities and appropriate practices to help organizations develop disability friendly policies and programs.
Webinars for 2017-2018 included: Residency Nuts and Bolts; Differentiation in the Creative Classroom; ACEs and Trauma-Informed Teaching in Art Education; Universal Access via Technology Provides Music Making for All; Basic Accommodations in the Arts; Engaging ALL Learners Using Alternative Printing and Painting Techniques; Reaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Webinar for Music Educators and Teaching Artists; Here and Wow- Creative Activities for the Classroom Using the ArtThread Gallery; Theater for ALL!; and The Inclusive Art Room: Strategies for Success in Elementary Visual Art.
Exemplary Student Recognition Programs
Arts4All Florida conducts two Exemplary Student Recognition Programs. The Student of the Month Program is designed to recognize outstanding artistry, personal growth, and leadership in the arts as well as increase public awareness of the impact arts make on students with disabilities. Two Students of the Month are selected throughout the school year and each receives an award. The Florida Young Soloist Program recognizes talented musicians, ages 14-25, who have a disability through an adjudicated statewide program. Finalists selected by a panel of judges are given a chance to perform at a professional venue in Florida, to be determined each year. All applicants are also entered in the VSA International Young Soloists Program.
Adult Programs
Arts4All Florida provides art programs for adults with disabilities that increase access to art experiences and provides resources to pursue the arts as a paid career. In addition to maintaining an online Artist Registry, the program provides a platform to showcase visual and performing artists through exhibitions, paid performances, and webinar/speaking opportunities.
Artist in Residence Program
Arts4All Florida’s My Art My Way artist in residence program provides professionally trained teaching artists to lead art learning experiences for students with disabilities. The program includes both the visual and performing arts and is conducted in self-contained or inclusive PreK- 12 classrooms. Annually, Arts4All Florida provides more than 150 eight-hour artist in residence programs to school and juvenile justice facilities across the state of Florida. Residencies are tied directly to Florida Standards and increase the artistic skills and cognitive learning of students with disabilities as well as provide a venue for students to express themselves creatively in appropriate ways. All lessons include accommodations or modifications as needed to ensure learning for all students.
The intended student outcomes are: 1) students will increase their artistic skills and techniques in the visual or performing arts in developmentally appropriate ways; 2) students will increase their cognitive skills including attention, memory, and auditory processing; 3) students will demonstrate self-expression by making choices regarding materials and methods in order to communicate their ideas during the creation of visual or performing art work; and 4) students will work cooperatively in small groups to achieve a common outcome.
Where we work
External reviews
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Arts4All Florida endeavors to create a world in which the arts are universally accessible, where: 1) all Floridians with disabilities have access to appropriate arts education and cultural experiences; 2) all artists in schools and art educators receive appropriate training and support to provide accessible instruction; 3) all cultural organizations ensure their events, facilities and activities are completely accessible to Floridians with disabilities; and 4) all individuals with disabilities who aspire to careers in the arts have opportunities to develop, strengthen and monetize their skills.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
For over 38 years, Arts4All Florida has provided direct service programs throughout the state of Florida in an effort to achieve our goals. 1) Arts4All Florida provides art education programs in schools, Department of Juvenile Justice facilities, and community centers to increase access to high quality arts learning experiences. 2) Arts4All Florida conducts professional development workshops for teachers and teaching artists to better prepare educators to include students with disabilities in their classes. 3) Arts4All Florida conducts disability awareness and accommodations workshops for cultural arts organizations to ensure facilities are accessible and staff/volunteers are trained to provide excellent customer service and educational opportunities to all guests. 4) Arts4All Florida promotes the accomplishments of adult artists with disabilities through our artist registry, exhibitions, and performances.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Arts4All Florida is headquartered in the College of Education at the University of South Florida. Arts4All Florida has a staff of two full-time and six part-time employees at the headquarters office in Tampa as well as five Regional Program Coordinators (RPCs) that live throughout the state. The Tampa staff focus on program management, marketing, fundraising, and professional development while the RPCs focus on regional partnerships and work directly with the ESE Directors in their assigned counties. Arts4All Florida receives support and funding from the Florida Department of Education (Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services) and Florida Department of State (Division of Cultural Affairs) as well as various grants and fee-for-service programs.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
In the 2017-2018 program year, Arts4All Florida utilized our statewide network of partnerships to provide 457 programs serving over 49,600 people in 64 counties including 196 multi-week artist in residence programs serving over 3,000 students and 36 in-person and webinar trainings on access and strategies for teaching art to people with disabilities reaching over 700 teachers, teaching artists, and cultural organization staff.
Arts4All Florida’s residency and professional development programs have shown long-term success in meeting the needs of students with disabilities.
All residencies tie directly to Florida Standards. For 2017-2018, residencies met an average of 14 non-duplicated standards during the eight-week session. Besides standards in the arts, 90% of residencies included standards in Special Skills, 82% included standards in Language Arts, and 72% included standards in Mathematics. In addition, 75% of residencies for students in grades 9-12 provided opportunities to practice transition skills. All residencies have additional goals, determined with the classroom teacher during the preplanning session. The top goals for residencies in 2017-2018 were to increase students’ self-expression and communication (50% of residencies), critical and creative thinking (14%), fine/gross motor skills (12%), and social skills (10%). According to teachers in 2017-2018, 87% of teachers felt the art activities helped most or almost all students express themselves in new ways and learn to work cooperatively and/or share tools and materials; 86% of teachers felt the art activities helped students increase their creative thinking and use of imagination; and 84% of teachers felt the art activities helped students increase their communication and/or verbal expression and learn new vocabulary.
According to follow-up surveys of professional development participants (in-person and webinar) for 2017-2018, 84.1% of participants felt that the tips and techniques they learned in the professional development program helped them in developing or implementing accommodations for students with disabilities and 79.1% felt that the tips helped them in planning accessible lessons and programs. In addition, 75.6% of arts teachers felt that the tips increased student engagement in arts activities, and for those respondents that felt the professional development increased student engagement, 100% felt that the increased student engagement reduced the need to remove students from their class due to behavior. On the pre/post-test used for the “Inclusive Practices in the Arts” training, 75% of participants increased their test scores following the training, with an average increase of 15%. For the open-ended test questions regarding accommodations for students with disabilities, the quality of the responses was richer and more detailed in the post-tests.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Arts4All Florida, Inc.
Board of directorsas of 12/23/2018
Katie Molloy
Greenberg Traurig
David Handera
Amtrak
Katie Molloy
Greenberg Traurig
Bill Heller
USF St. Petersburg
David Handera
Dollar Express
Francine Andersen
Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs
Allison Galloway-Gonzalez
Cathedral Arts Project/ Any Given Child
Suzanne Martin
University of Central Florida
Daryl Ward
Harrison School for the Arts
Judy Litt
Florida International University
Laurie Hoppock
Duval County Public Schools
Kathy Lovell
Regions Bank
Clint Randles
University of South Florida- School of Music
Paula Sklodowski
WGCU Public Media
Lori Ann Whittington
Pine Castle
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No