Announcing AOK’s 2022-2023 Landis Grant Recipients and the 2022 Winner of the Laurie Pitman Award!

We are delighted to present the recipients of the 2022-2023 Arts for Oakland Kids Landis Grant recipients and the 2022 winner of the Laurie Pitman Award! This year, $105,000 in grants will fund 14 arts education programs serving over 1,700 TK-12 students across Oakland. We extend our heartfelt gratitude and admiration to the talented, dedicated artists and organizations that reach Oakland’s kids every day with life changing arts education. 

Thank you for all that you do to make the world a better place.

Agency by Design

Funded by the dedicated AOK Community

Bay Area Children’s Theatre

Funded by Aaron Loeb and Kathy Roberts

Cantare

Funded in partnership with the Mel & Leta Ramos Family Foundation, and the dedicated AOK Community

Chapter 510 Ink

Funded in Partnership with John Kikuchi and Debra Coggins, the Oakland Rotary Community Service Committee, and the dedicated AOK Community

Harmony Project

Funded by Muriel Coignard-Reiley

Junior Center of Art and Science

Funded in partnership with Gary Knecht & Squeak Carnwath, Mike White & Sally Landis, and the dedicated AOK Community

Living Jazz

Funded in Partnership with The Financial Avengers, and the Mel & Leta Ramos Family Foundation

Music in Schools Today

Funded by Pam and Howard Hatayama

Oakland Ballet Company

Funded in Partnership with Christine Scrivani, James and Beryl Potter, and the dedicated AOK Community

Prescott Circus Theatre

Funded in Partnership with Anonymous Friends and the dedicated AOK Community

Strings, Drums & Pride

Funded by the dedicated AOK Community

Today’s Future Sound

Funded by Janice Azebu and Diane Dunwoodie

Ukulele with Ms. Gabby

Funded by the dedicated AOK Community

Youth Beat

Funded in Partnership with Janice Azebu & Diane Dunwoodie, and Lauran Weinmann

Arts education is not “extra.” Arts education is education!

“Arts in schools is a child’s right.

They are not a luxury,

they are a necessity.”

-Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf

Numerous national studies show that consistent participation in the arts has such a powerful impact on social, emotional, and intellectual development that it can significantly narrow or eliminate the achievement gap. Yet 80% of Oakland’s students—98% of whom are students of color—are denied the advantage of an arts education based on their access to generational wealth. Wealth disparities in communities of color are directly tied to institutionalized oppression. Denying students of color the profound advantage of an arts education based on their generational wealth is structural racism.

Access to arts education is a social justice issue, and Arts for Oakland Kids is an Arts Justice Fund.

For 25 years, Arts for Oakland Kids has been working to remedy this injustice by providing grants to arts organizations and independent artists to provide hands-on arts education in Oakland’s financially-oppressed schools, but we can’t do it without you

Your contributions to Arts for Oakland Kids (AOK) will ensure that Oakland’s students of color receive the exemplary arts education they deserve.

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