Welcome, DCPS Arts Teachers!
CAP is the leading nonprofit provider of quality, comprehensive and ongoing instruction in the visual and performing arts for school-aged children and youth in Northeast Florida.
We provide quality, standards-based instruction in art as therapy, dance, media arts, music, theatre and the visual arts that immerses students in the vocabulary, history and beauty of an art form. Highly qualified teaching artists spend at least two hours each week mentoring students, building their skills over the course of a school year and transforming not only their academic performance, but also their lives.
Every child has a creative spirit.
For some children, it comes alive through the visual arts: turning blank pages and digital canvases into expressions of hope. For others, it breathes through their bodies — transforming notes, choreography, and words into personal statements of joy.
Children develop the technical skills to prepare for these moments through instruction in the arts. Along the way, the arts develop their unique strengths — like self-confidence, creative thinking, self-respect, empathy, and perseverance.
Beyond any project or performance, the arts add up to a well-rounded life. This belief inspired a group of volunteers to create a neighborhood dance class at St. John’s Cathedral in 1993. And it continues to inspire us today, nearly 30 years and more than 30,000 students later.
Through our programs, we invite children to discover and celebrate their creative spirit.
2021 – 2022 Programs
CAP is pleased to offer both virtual and in-person courses this year! CAP remains dedicated to providing access to quality visual and performing arts education to all children, regardless of where or how they attend school.
Courses will be offered in art as therapy, dance, media arts, music, theatre and visual arts. Virtual courses are six weeks long and will be offered four times throughout the year, and in-person courses are year-long at Duval County Public Schools and community sites. While virtual courses are open to any child, in-person courses are open only to children already enrolled at that school or site.
LEAD – Understanding How the Arts Add Up in Duval County
CAP, as part of the Any Given Child Jacksonville initiative, launched the Landscape of Education in the Arts in Duval (LEAD), a collective national effort to affect systemic change for arts education through partnerships with Chicago-based Ingenuity, Inc., the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Americans for the Arts.
LEAD began in 2019 by providing surveys to all DCPS schools, as well as local arts and culture organizations, to collect information about arts programs and resources. The data collected helps community stakeholders identify funding and partnership opportunities that will lead to greater support and resources for arts education and create strategies to strengthen whole-child education and address equity gaps.
The purpose of the LEAD survey and artlook® map is to inform and help all community stakeholders understand the impact, equity and standards of quality arts learning in schools and arts organizations in Duval County and to continue moving toward the goal of ensuring the arts for any given child.
This fall, DCPS principals, with assistance from their visual and performing arts teachers, will answer questions about the arts education programs offered at their schools. It is also an opportunity to publicize some of the needs and wants for those programs, allowing the community to respond and support. This free, public mapping tool serves as a powerful search engine linking schools to programs and helping to target resources and connect individuals.
Sample questions can be found here.
Contact
For more information about CAP programs, contact Kristin Livingston, Vice President of Programs, at kristin@capkids.org.
For more information or to get involved with LEAD, email LEAD@capkids.org.