The confetti drop at PA Showcase | Photo by Tiffany Manning
Our main-stage 2025 Visual (VA) and Performing Arts (PA) Showcases, held on May 17-June 4 and May 3 respectively, have now come to a close. Thank you to all of our students, families and Teaching Artists, whose hard work and dedication made this one of the biggest and best years of CAP Showcase yet!
Showcase 2025: Impact & Growth
- Students representing 39 programs from public, private, charter and home school settings, as well as JSO John E. Goode Pre-Trial Detention Facility and Youth Crisis Center, participated in Showcase this year.
- 465 students took the stage for PA Showcase—up 12% over 2024!
- Nearly 1,400 family members and friends showed up to cheer on our students at PA, a 25% increase over 2024’s attendance!
- 220 visual arts pieces were exhibited in VA Showcase, 21% more amazing art than last year!
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Beyond the Main Stage
CAP students have multiple opportunities to shine on stages large and small. In addition to our yearly Showcases, CAP often puts on and participates in school-based performances for the communities we serve throughout the school year. School-based performances allow students the opportunity to work through their stage fright and practice their technique before their final performances. Here are just a few examples of recent school-based performances and showcases featuring CAP students:
Nassau Community Showcase
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- Photo by Laura Evans
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- Photo by Laura Evans
This year, CAP proudly expanded our reach to serve children across Duval, St. Johns, Clay and Nassau counties. We reached a major milestone with our first production of the Nassau Community Showcase on May 25, where students celebrated the end of their first year of CAP homeschool programs in Nassau County. Students from the art, music and theater classes participated in a culminating art show and performing arts event that highlighted the creativity, excitement and hard work of the young artists and their teaching artists!
Huge congratulations for an incredible year and a showcase that showed the community in Nassau what’s possible when we give children the opportunity to develop and express their creative spirits!
Jereme Raickett speaking at award ceremony | Photo by Jen Miles
Voices of Art: Afterschool Arts Performance at Sulzbacher Village
The Afterschool Learning Program at Sulzbacher Village is a high-quality program tailored to meet the needs of children and families in the community. Students are engaged in a developmentally appropriate environment that protects and enhances their physical safety as well as their mental health.
During the multi-program Afterschool Arts Performance on May 28, students, led by CAP Teaching Artist in Theatre Jereme Raickett, showed off the warm-up exercises and improv skills they’d learned. Afterwards, Jereme presented the students with medals and certificates to honor the hard work they’d put in.
Jacksonville Classical Academy Students Perform in Preparation for Performing Arts Showcase
The recent Spring Recital at Jacksonville Classical Academy included piano, chorus and CAP’s musical theatre program. Students performed for the entire school community including teachers, administrators, parents and their student peers. Each student wore their full CAP Performing Arts Showcase costume modeled after characters in the children’s classic, Peter Pan.
Parkwood Heights Visual Arts Mural Dedication Ceremony
The entire Parkwood Heights school community joined in to celebrate the hard work of CAP Visual Arts students with a mural dedication ceremony. Teaching Artist Christine Holechek worked with students throughout the year to develop a mural using student created imagery to spell out the school’s name!
Springfield Middle School Spring Arts Night
Students at Springfield Middle School gathered along with their families at the recent Spring Arts Night to celebrate their accomplishments. CAP Teaching Artist Fellow in Visual Arts, Priscilla Allen, showcased student work created during the CAP Art Smarts arts integration classes and her afterschool Arts Ignite enrichment program. Students and their families were encouraged to participate in adding to a series of collaborative collages celebrating the joys childhood!
Congratulations again to all of the performers, teachers, volunteers, families and friends who made this year so amazing!
CAP Students & Parents Agree: The Arts and Performances Matter
Students recite the CAP Creed with the help of emcees Liz McCoy, Executive Director of James Weldon Johnson Park, (left) and Michelle D. Hare, Vystar’s Senior Vice President of Culture and Belonging, at Performing Arts Showcase | Photo by Sindy Gonzalez
Young people who have a chance to learn an art form do better in academics and in life. Performances and exhibitions take those benefits one step further—instilling pride, teamwork, accomplishment and dedication that comes with the hard work of preparing and perfecting a piece.
“Our Performing Arts and Visual Arts Showcases are transformative moments where our students shine. Seeing children who had never experienced the arts before CAP confidently perform on stage or proudly display their artwork reminds us why we do this work,” said Luisa Reis, CAP’s Vice President of Programs. “These events celebrate not just artistic growth, but the development of confidence, creativity, and self-expression—skills that will benefit them for a lifetime.”
Here’s what students and families had to say about this year’s programs and Showcases:
- “The CAP program has been absolutely amazing! I started cello in 4th grade, so for my son to have such a wonderful opportunity to follow suit and to love playing the cello himself has been irreplaceable. Thank you, CAP!!” – Parent, Central Riverside Elementary, Strings
- “The [CAP Class] helps me grow socially, and helps me learn a lot of songs, sight reading and a lot of other stuff” – Student, Performing Arts
- “This is a wonderful program. I love that there is an exhibition at the end. It has really helped my daughter become more confident. She is so creative and we can celebrate her creativity with other artists. This is a wonderful thing!” – Parent, Cornerstone Classical Academy, Visual Arts
- “The environment is very uplifting and social. We’re all working together to make pieces together and bring home. [It’s] a positive environment.” – Student, Visual Arts
- “The 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.” – Student, Performing Arts
- “Olive has grown in so many ways. Her self confidence has grown and her grades have been the highest this year. She has a love of art. Thank you.” – Parent, Ortega Elementary, Visual Art
See your student on stage at the 2026 CAP Showcase—enroll in a CAP program today!
CAP strings students teach emcees Anthony Austin of First Coast News (second from left) and Kemal Gasper, Vystar Vice President of Community Engagement (right), to play the violin at PA Showcase | Photo by Sindy Gonzalez
Enrollment for CAP programs for the 2025-2026 year opens soon! Click here to sign up for our emails to be notified when CAP programs open for enrollment.
