For many local children, the arts are out of reach.
Your support can bring them closer.
REIMAGINE: Unlocking Every Childās Potential
Arts education and therapies improve children’s lives, academics and behavior.
Join our bold campaign to make high-quality arts education and therapeutic services the bridge to better grades, healthier futures and a ready workforce for Northeast Florida.
The Broad Strokes
The Need
Research shows arts education dramatically improves academic performance and behavior, and builds creativity and confidence in children. More than half of local schools have less than $4 per student for the arts annually, while some have no arts budget at all. This disparity affects thousands of students simply because of their ZIP codeāstudents with the potential to become the future leaders and changemakers of Northeast Florida if we choose to invest in them today.
The Solution
For more than 30 years, CAP has provided arts education programs to schools and communities across Northeast Florida where they’re needed most. But our waiting lists for new programs grow longer every day. Our REIMAGINE Campaign will raise $21 million to reach more students and take them further. By hiring more fellows and expanding specialized programs, we will narrow achievement gaps and help more children reach their full potential.
āMy child has improved immensely since beginning the strings program at her school.
Thank you to all who helped make this program possible.ā – CAP parent
The Finer Details
The State of the Arts in NEFL
This disparity is a tragedy. Young people with the most meager means often need the arts most of all. Over CAPās 30+ years of providing arts education to children in Northeast Florida, we have witnessed over and over what reams of research have shown: Arts education not only instills creativity and confidence in children; when the arts and art therapies are part of a school curriculum, there is a staggering increase in academic and behavioral outcomes.
How CAP is Filling a Need
- Arts integration: Instruction in dance, music, theatre or the visual arts is used as a tool for learning one or more academic subjects, giving students new ways to learn and retain lessons. Learn more about CAP’s Art Smarts programs >>
- Art therapies: Our sensory art, music therapy and art counseling programs help children and young adults with disabilities build skills necessary for confidence, socialization, emotional regulation and improved academics. Learn more about CAPabilities >>
- Afterschool arts education: Our core offering since 1993, students in various educational settings are provided quality, standards-based instruction in dance, music, theatre and the visual arts at little or no cost to families. Browse CAP’s afterschool programs >>
Bridging the Gap with REIMAGINE
- Hiring and supporting more full-time fellows and embedding more teaching artist fellows directly into schools to alleviate the budget burden on schools
- Giving fellows more resources and time with students, creating lasting experiences and impactful mentorship connections
- Expanding our specialized ensemble model to more art forms, providing advanced education in the arts to students who could otherwise not afford it
- Developing richer programs designed to strengthen students’ education beyond the elementary grades
This funding will provide sustainable arts education to students across our region each year, helping more children to reach their full potential by:
- narrowing the academic achievement gap;
- imparting creative and cognitive skills that inspire deeper connections and greater emotional and intellectual growth;
- and inspiring future citizens of Jacksonville to create a better city and world for us all.
āCAP has been a huge blessing to our family to offer my children, whom I homeschool, the opportunity to attend art, theatre and music classes that we otherwise would not be able to afford.
We are incredibly grateful.ā – CAP parent
A Clear Vision:
How Your Gift Will Be Used
The chart below illustrates CAPās past growth and plans for sustained annual growth totaling $21 million through the campaign.
Where Your Support Changes Lives
REIMAGINE focuses on three priorities that unlock studentsā potential:
Students & Programs
$9,500,000
Growing and deepening our high-quality programs that equip children to learn, dream and achieve.
Here's How
- Provide students’ art supplies, including scripts, costumes, dance shoes, instruments, sheet music and more
- Cover field trip travel costs
- Organize guest artist visits
- Source additional supplies for special projects
- Strengthen investments for general operating costs
Fellows
$10,400,000
Expanding our proven model to open doors. For almost a decade, CAP’s Fellows have helped students focus better, engage in school and succeed in the classroom.
Here's How
- Recruit national leaders in arts education and therapeutic services to lead its daytime and afterschool student programs
- Collaborate with local artists and educators and build community partnerships
- Provide ongoing professional development and training for Fellows
Exhibitions & Performances
$1,100,000
When students step onto a stage or see their artwork displayed, they build confidence and a sense of accomplishment they carry back into the classroom and out into the world.
Here's How
- Book high-quality venues and exhibition spaces
- Purchase supplies and provisions for performers and support staff
- Provide student travel to rehearsals and performances
- Cover staffing and other event costs
Campaign Total
$21,000,000
āThe best thing about my class is that it teaches a lot of things in a lot of ways, like if you messed up, then keep on going, no matter what. And if anything happens, you gotta continue.ā ā CAP performing arts student
This Moment is Crucial. Your Support is, Too.
In this urgent, uncertain moment, the arts are on the defensive. Children in our community need supporters like you to help ensure their futures are vibrant and bright.
As we enter REIMAGINEās final months, we invite you to help us ensure that every child in our region has access to the arts. With you as our partners, we are reimagining the futureāone in which every child is given the opportunity to succeed.
We can achieve our goals with your support. There is no more urgent moment than this one.
Fellows: A New Model
Employing our fellows full-time allows them to spend time at multiple schools and sites per week, reaching more students on a regular basis; fellows also have time for professional development with classroom teachers and office space to plan their curricula.
CAP is now piloting an additional component that places teaching artist fellows full-time at a single school which cannot afford a dedicated teacher in their artistic fieldātaking this model one step further, deepening impact where it’s needed most.
This innovative model allows CAP to reach more children in more ways while strengthening the arts throughout Northeast Florida and building a sustainable future for the organization and community.
How the Teaching Artist Fellow Model Works
- dramatically increases student contact hours
- more than doubles the number of students engaged in the arts during the school day
- more efficiently provides transformative art programming
- sustainably positions fellows to be role models, advocates and champions for students who might otherwise never discover their artistic potential
These fellows work alongside classroom teachers, integrating the arts into the curriculum, making sure creative expression is not an afterthought, but a cornerstone of learning.
āMs. Taylor says I have to take responsibility for myself as an artist.
I have to take responsibility for myself as a leader.ā – CAP world drums student
CAP’s Fellows
Sammi J. Acconcio, MT-BC
Board Certified Music Therapist
Priscilla Allen
Teaching Artist Fellow in Visual Arts
Christian Anderson
Delores Barr Weaver Teaching Artist Fellow in Theatre
Lindsay M. Bowyer
Teaching Artist Fellow in Visual Arts
LaRhonda Britton-James, LMHC
Clinical Creative Art Counselor
Ashlee Collins
Petway Teaching Artist Fellow in Visual Arts
Laura Fennell, M.M.T., MT-BC
Board Certified Music Therapist
Chelsye P. Ginn
Teaching Artist Fellow in Theatre
Brittany Harmon, M.M., MT-BC
Board Certified Music Therapist
Jacqueline Peterson
Teaching Artist Fellow in Dance
Joshua Stone
Teaching Artist Fellow in Strings
Julia Veiga, M.F.A.
Teaching Artist Fellow in TheatreThe Ensemble Model
The ensemble model takes a different approach from the majority of ongoing CAP afterschool and arts integration programs, which are limited to students in elementary and middle grades at CAP partner sites. These prestigious groups are led by our fellows and comprised of current and former CAP students who want to further develop their skills in a chosen art form.
Specialized ensembles provide more individualized instruction to students who wish to further their arts education. Guidance from Teaching Artist Fellows with years of experience in professional instruction in their fields:
- enriches students’ artistic growth beyond the classroom
- opens doors of opportunity to local and national competitions and performance and exhibition opportunities
- provides comprehensive preparation for portfolios and auditions for roles and arts-focused academic programs
- develops pathways toward professional careers in the arts
Ensembles are formed by audition or teacher recommendation, and meet regularly throughout the year outside of regular class times.
CAP String Orchestra
In the six years since its inception, CAPSO students have repeatedly earned prestigious recognition and awards. Most recently:
- The ensemble earned top awards at Music in the Parks at Universal Studios Orlando, bringing home trophies for a superior rating and the Best Overall Orchestra award, the competitionās highest honors for an orchestra.
- CAPSO violist NāDiyah Bolte was selected for the highly competitive Sphinx Performance Academy (SPA) 2025 summer chamber music and solo performance program. The program provided her a full scholarship, training and mentorship as well as room and board for the summer program at the University of Colorado Boulder College of Music.
CAP Dance Ensemble
CAP Theatre Company
CAP Studio Artists (coming soon)
And every childāno matter where they come from, no matter the challenges they faceādeserves a space to discover who they are and what they can become.
āThanks again for the confidence. I didn’t think I could do this. ā – CAP visual arts student
Let’s REIMAGINE what’s possibleātogether.
Letās talk about how you can be part of this vision. Weād love to hear what inspires you.
Together, we reimagine what is possible for every child, for every future, for all of us.
Learn More and Get Involved
Contact Doug Walker, Vice President of Philanthropy, at doug@capkids.org.