ANNUAL REPORT 2025 September 2024 - August 2025
MISSION Transforming the lives and education of our youth through the arts by connecting educators, professional artists, and communities.
VISION Arts for Learning envisions a day when every student in Maryland has the opportunity to imagine, create, and realize their full potential through the arts.
FOCUS At Arts for Learning, we pair artists with classroom teachers to teach academics through the arts. Musicians and beatboxers join math teachers to teach fractions. Painters join science teachers, creating murals to study ecosystems. Students collaborate, ask questions, and dive deeper into their studies, engaged and excited by the creative process. That's arts integration.
DEAR FRIENDS, This year, we entered the 75th year of Arts for Learning Maryland! That’s 75 years of introducing students to new ways of thinking and learning, and connecting Maryland artists with meaningful work. We got to this moment together. Our community of artists, educators, students, families, and supporters helps to ensure opportunity reaches every student, fueling joy in classrooms, making learning accessible, and proving every day that what we are doing in Maryland schools works. This year, your partnership is carrying us forward during moments of real challenge. Despite federal cuts that led to the overnight elimination of our afterschool program, this community came together to ensure continued operation for our children and families. Despite a 50% reduction in funding for our Summer Arts for Learning Academy, we restored the program and served a record number of students, including 250 young people in Baltimore City’s Extended School Year program. We partnered with
the Maryland State Department of Education to host our first-ever Maryland Principal Arts Symposium, connecting 39 educational leaders from across the state with arts-based practices to bring back to their schools. We served 140,910 students through 628,858 hours of learning in, through, and about the arts. And, after five years of planning, our vision for an artist-integrated neighborhood charter school–built on our awardwinning summer model–was approved in Baltimore City. Dream Academy Charter School will open for the 2026–2027 school year! None of this would be possible without you, our community, helping us create more learning for students, more work for artists, and more support for educators as we move forward together. We are deeply grateful.
Stacie Sanders Evans President & CEO
HOW WE INSPIRE LEARNING Learning in, about, and through the arts creates inspired learning environments. The arts empower students to think creatively and engage in the learning of all subjects in a new way. Research shows that all children—and particularly children at risk of academic failure—are more likely to thrive in schools that make time for the arts and utilize arts integration.
Dynamic artist-led residencies, assemblies, and workshops where students explore new art mediums, collaborate, think critically, and build confidence. 3,972 experiences in schools
K-12 PROGRAMS Arts-integrated summer + afterschool programs that blend art and academics to spark creative discovery, combat learning loss, and inspire lifelong learning. 248,247 hours of student learning
ARTS FOR LEARNING ACADEMIES
Hands-on creative explorations for our youngest learners and their caregivers that build vocabulary and math skills, and nurture an early love of learning. 16,145 early learners and caregivers served
EARLY LEARNING Baltimore City high school students experience paid internships at cultural institutions and work with professional writing coaches, college mentors, and creative leaders. 50 students at 32 worksites
BLOOMBERG ARTS INTERNSHIP We transform school communities by training and supporting educators + artists to bring arts integration, critical consciousness, and healing into their classrooms. 1,287 workshops held statewide
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
BY THE NUMBERS These numbers reflect services provided Sept 1, 2024 - August 31, 2025.
140,910 628,858 4 21 368 $3,078,725 395 9,569
students engaged student learning hours embedded community school coordinators counties reached artists contracted paid to artists schools and community partners reached educators impacted
LONGTERM IMPACT Training teachers in arts integration creates long-term change within our school systems. If the 1,045 educators we provided professional development training this year keep arts integration in their classrooms for the next 10 years, we will indirectly impact 282,150 students. Imagine if we could increase professional development opportunities across Maryland!
1 TEACHER X 27 STUDENTS PER YEAR X 10 YEARS OF TEACHING X 1,045 TEACHERS TRAINED
= 282,150 STUDENTS REACHED
For 75 years, Arts for Learning has served students across Maryland through arts-integrated learning that strengthens academic achievement and social emotional development. Since 2015, we have demonstrated the effectiveness of this model through our award-winning afterschool and summer programs. We have been continually asked whether this model and impact could be extended to the daily classroom experience during the school year. In a 2022 survey of families in our summer program, 97% of respondents agreed that an Arts for Learning school is needed in Baltimore. 86% said they would consider enrolling their children. In June of 2025, the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners voted to approve A4L’s application to convert Thomas Jefferson Elementary Middle School (TJEMS) into an artist-integrated neighborhood charter called Dream Academy Charter School. This is a trajectory-changing moment for us, the culmination of four years of dreaming, planning, and organizing with our community. Implementing our model through a dedicated school will allow us to study, refine, and evaluate its effectiveness, and use the resulting evidence to impact practice across Maryland. We are honored to be the first new charter operator approved in Baltimore City in more than a decade, and look forward to building the Dream with you all as partners. The inaugural class of Dreamers starts in the fall of 2026! For questions about this ongoing work, contact Kurtis Donnelly, Executive Director, Dream Academy Charter School: kdonnelly@dreamacademybaltimore.org
OUR RESULTS Arts for Learning continues to demonstrate strong learning outcomes as demonstrated by independent evaluations.
0.039
Mean z-Standardized Score
40
MATH GAINS SALA students made stronger math gains, showing nearly four times the growth of students in the comparison group.
30 20
10
0.010
0 SALA
COMPARISON
2025 Summer Arts for Learning Academy assessment data, analyzed by WolfBrown.
ELL MATH GAINS ELL students made strong math gains during SALA, nearly closing the gap with their non-ELL peers.
Math z-Standardized Score
0.200 0.100
NON-ELL SALA STUDENTS ELL SALA STUDENTS
0.000 -0.100 -0.200 -0.300 -0.400 END OF 24-25 SCHOOL YEAR
START OF 25-26 SCHOOL YEAR
2025 Summer Arts for Learning Academy assessment data, analyzed by WolfBrown.
“The Artist did a fantastic job at presenting the content in an engaging and exciting way for the wide age range of students. The students were given ownership over their own work and left feeling proud of what they created.”
“The Principal Art Symposium was inspiring and energizing. I left with new ideas for integrating the arts into school culture and learned practical strategies for supporting art educators. Hearing real stories from school leaders and educators who have successfully embedded the arts into their school communities was both motivating and practical. The art activity reminded me of the joy and value the arts bring to both students and adults.”
FINANCE AT A GLANCE FY25
Total Income
$16,703,188
Earned income from programs
$11,942,645
Private Grants
$3,243,962
Public Grants
$35,000
Individual donations
$810,387
Other
$671,194
Total Expenses
$16,118,160
Program
$14,533,421
General & Admin
$769,730
Fundraising
$815,009
Public Grants .2%
FY25 INCOME
Other 4%
FY25 EXPENSES
Individual Donations 4.9%
Private Grants 19.4% Program 71.5%
Gen/Admin 4.7% Fundraising 5.0%
Program 90.1%
SUPPORTERS We are deeply grateful to every donor who made a gift this year. A special thank you to our Sunburst Society donors (marked with ) for making a five-year commitment to the organization, allowing us to create long-term plans beyond our current fiscal year and remain faithful to our vision.
$100,000+
$10,000-49,999
Anonymous Bloomberg Philanthropies The Hackerman Foundation Inc. Morton & Sophia Macht Foundation Maryland State Arts Council Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation The Sherman Family Foundation Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation
Anonymous Baltimore Community Foundation Baltimore County Commission on Arts and Sciences Rheda Becker and Robert Meyerhoff Baltimore Gas & Electric Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation Neal and Winnie Borden Tom and Susan Weingast Brown Brian and Kathy Chappell Clayton Baker Trust Firewol Fund of the Baltimore Community Foundation Harry L. Gladding Foundation Government of the District of Columbia Samuel G. & Margaret A. Gorn Foundation David & Barbara B. Hirschhorn Foundation Alan Hoff and Trisha Frick
$50,000-99,999 Abell Foundation Blanket Fort Foundation Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation Maryland Department of Commerce Maryland State Department of Education Middendorf Foundation National Endowment for the Arts
Drs. Nancy Kass and Sean Tunis Louis B. II and Josephine L. Kohn Family Foundation Lockhart Vaughan Foundation Lois and Philip Macht Family Philanthropic Fund Nancy Peery Marriott Foundation Alex and Sara Meadows Shawe Morris A. Mechanic Foundation, Inc. Joseph & Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable Funds Northrop Grumman Corporation Scott and Judy Phares PNC Bank Eric and Sara Pripstein The Richman Foundation George Roche Barbara Shapiro Jean and Sidney Silber Foundation T. Rowe Price Foundation The Aber D Unger Foundation Inc Univest Financial Corporation Chris and David Wallace Mark and Sherri Weinman Paul & Dorothy Wolman The Wolman Family Fund Wright Family Fund Young Audiences, Inc.
$5,000-9,999 Jocelyn Albert Sheelagh and Adam Allston Anonymous Ellen and Ed Bernard The Annie E. Casey Foundation Chip and Kelly Doetsch
Denise Galambos and Bill Kichline Goldsmith Family Foundation David McKibbin Tom and Barbara Mohler Randy and Stephanie Osteen Shawe Family Foundation
$1,000-4,999 Lissa Abrams Jennifer Andiorio Anonymous Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts Baltimore Teachers Union, Local 340 Bay Harbor Wealth Management Bruce and Polly Behrens Darcy Bisset Steven Bond Linda Bonn Bill and Candice Buckner Campbell Foundation Virginia Campbell Jennifer Carr Blazer and Kathy Catzen Lindsey and Dan Clifford George Doetsch Peter and Lorraine Doo Elizabeth Drigotas Eliasberg Family Foundation, Inc. Mary Favret Kenneth Gill Michael and Jane Glick Christopher Goelet Andrew Graham Greenspring Advisors Lara Hall and Jay Hood Lee and Brenda Heikkinen Kendall Hoff
David Holmes and Bonnie Aubuchon Betsy Huttar David and Harriet Hutzler John J. Leidy Foundation Johns Hopkins University's SLAM Hip Hop Dance Group Ishaan Kapoor Edward and Pamela Kasemeyer Barbara and Mort Kesler Stephanie Kimmons Mitch and Barbara Krebs Cynthia Lake and Jason Goldstein Pat Lasher and Richard Jacobs Mark Paul Lehman and Kurt Davis George Grose and Amy Macht Bill Magruder and Stanley Scherr Mahogany Inc. Cecil and Tracy Martin McGuireWoods LLP Shaquayah McKenzie Brian Kelley and Julie Medalis Dr. Jason and Malikah Morgan Patrick and Amy Mutch Sarah Nordmann and Carl Nielsen Cindy Paradies and Larry Moscow The Pittsburgh Foundation Ms. Claire Reade and Dr. Earl Steinberg Jan and Larry Rivitz The Nora Roberts Foundation Sarah and John Savage Mrs. Lorraine Schapiro Eugene Schnell and Monika Springer Schnell Scott's United Methodist Church
Tom and Julie Sessa Marjorie Shapiro Jennifer St. Germain Joshua Stone Jim and Lorayne Thornton Three Seas, Inc. Mary Jean and Oliver Travers Foundation, Inc. James and Jane Webster Morris Weinman Memorial Foundation Tim Mace and Bobbi Young-Mace
$500-999 Derrick Barnes John Beckley David Brown Ms. Ellen Burchenal and Mr. John Dean Bill Eberhart Lawanda Edwards and Duke Psora Gayle Evans Norrece T. Jones Jr. and Betty D Session Jenny and Mike Nance Steven Norwitz Mr. Wells Obrecht Elizabeth Perry Colleen Pierre Julie Richardson Leslie Shepard Jody Snyder David and Carol Stern Joseph Traill Peter Waxter Hie Jung Yoon
To make a gift online, visit artsforlearningmd.org/donate or reach out to a4ldevelopment@artsforlearningmd.org.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT & CEO
Stacie Sanders Evans BOARD MEMBERS
Sheelagh M. Allston, Chair
Mark Paul Lehman
Bill Buckner, Vice-Chair
Ariel L. Martin, Esq.
Chris Wallace, Vice-Chair
Cecil Martin
Dr. Nancy Kass, Secretary
Julie Medalis
Eric Pripstein, Treasurer
Jason Morgan
Casey Brent
Randy Osteen
Thomas Brown
Gerren Price
Candice Buckner
Dr. Sallie Rixey
Brian Chappell
Sarah Savage
Elizabeth Drigotas
Thomas J. Sessa
Lawanda Edwards
Sara Meadows Shawe
Alan Hoff
Jennifer St. Germain
Rodrick Johnson
Sarah Andrew Wilson
Senator Edward Kasemeyer
Paul Wolman
J. Mitchell Krebs
21 E. North Ave., 1st Floor Baltimore, MD 21202 www.artsforlearningmd.org