"This [Wallace Foundation] grant is a wonderful example of how far we have come toward expanding arts programming throughout our entire school system. The BPS Arts Expansion Initiative shows how arts programming can pull entire communities together - teachers and artists, non profit partners and private sponsors - to support student learning and provide children with valuable enrichment opportunities."

- Mayor Thomas M. Menino, City of Boston

Strategic Initiatives

Launched in 2009 as a new strategic approach for EdVestors, Strategic Initiative (SI) grants couple increased funding for high-potential educational efforts with greater involvement from EdVestors to develop and shape multi-year, District-wide investments. Strategic Initiative grants:

  • Impact a large number of urban schools and students
  • Require multi-year funding to gain traction
  • Leverage EdVestors' accumulated knowledge and philanthropic expertise to ensure effective implementation


EdVestors will identify, develop, and launch new Strategic Initiatives as our Portfolio produces high-impact opportunities for large scale expansion.


BPS Arts Expansion Initiative

The first of EdVestors' new SI grants is the BPS Arts Expansion Initiative, a three-year, $2.5M effort to expand arts education in the Boston Public Schools, with a focus on increasing access, equity, and quality. Key goals include:

  1. Expand direct arts instruction for students during the school day
  2. Build the capacity of the District to strengthen school-based arts instruction
  3. Improve coordination of partnerships with arts and cultural groups and higher education institutions to support increased arts programming in the schools

Developed in collaboration with Boston Superintendent Carol R. Johnson and seeded with a planning grant through the 2008 EdVestors Showcase, the Arts Expansion Initiative was launched in February 2009 with the release of The Arts Advantage: Expanding Arts Education in the Boston Public Schools (Boston Foundation, 2009).

Lead funders include the Barr Foundation, the Boston Foundation, Hunt Alternatives Fund, the Klarman Family Foundation, the Linde Family Foundation, and other donors. EdVestors serves as the primary steward of this effort to fundamentally change the way arts education is delivered in the District.

To date, through the new BPS Arts Expansion Fund at EdVestors, $1.5 of the $2.5 million goal has been raised and more than $550,000 in grants distributed in Year 1 to expand arts instruction to more students, providing both district-level and school-based support for expanded arts. For the update on the Initiative's progress, the 2008-2009 BPS Arts School Inventory data, and an overview of the current work, please click here to view the 2010 Arts Advantage Progress Report.

In October of 2009, on behalf of the BPS Arts Expansion Initiative, EdVestors was awarded an additional $750,000 planning grant from the Wallace Foundation in New York. Simultaneous to the $2.5 million local Expansion Fund, planning funds will be used to develop a long-term sustainable arts education plan for the District, including best practices in school arts programs, professional development for teachers and school leaders, improved coordination of schools and arts partners, communications and funding, and ongoing evaluation to assess progress.

To learn more or get involved with BPS Arts Expansion Initiative:

Contact Marinell Rousmaniere, Arts Expansion Initiative Project Director at EdVestors, artsfund@edvestors.org.

To apply for funding from the BPS Arts Expansion Fund at EdVestors, click here.