Art and Music Experiences for Chelsea Heights Kids

Due to budget cuts across Saint Paul Public Schools, Chelsea Heights Elementary has lost our wonderful full-time art and music specialists for the 2024-25 school year.  

Our school community values the arts, and we are committed to making sure that every Chelsea Heights student has enriching and culturally diverse art and music programming EVERY year! 

In the long term, our goal is to boost enrollment at our wonderful school, and once again have access to full-time art and music specialists. 

For the 2024-25 school year, the PTO is working alongside teachers, principal Maldonado, our newly formed Arts Committee, and our greater community to provide residencies, field trips, and classroom activities across a range of art and music disciplines. This is an opportunity to broaden the art and music experiences our kids have access to, and we're excited to announce our two confirmed partnerships: 

Saint Paul artist Broderick Poole will be in residence at Chelsea for 4 weeks this fall. Broderick is an established local artist and business owner from the Rondo community. He is the illustrator of the book "Joy & Grandpa Johnson's Day in Rondo" and teaches youth art classes through CultureWin and Saint Paul Parks and Recreation. He'll meet with each class for two weeks in October 2024. Residency activities will include a yearbook cover design contest, Chelsea Heights t-shirt design contest, and more! 

Now.Make.Art, founded and owned by Como Park resident Megan Flod Johnson, will be in residence at Chelsea in January and February 2025. They'll work with each classroom individually to create a Clay City, which students will brainstorm, plan, and create with their classmates. The school-wide Clay City will be on display during our Winter Hibernation event in February!

We are also in conversation with other local artists, non-profit organizations, and educational partners to help us fill the calendar with a wide range of art and music experiences this school year.  

We are utilizing volunteers and free programs where possible, and have also applied for grant funding for some programs. Still, the costs for these experiences will add up! Our existing commitments total $15,000 and we need our community's help to be able to offer these and other programs! 

Give what you can today to help provide music and arts programming for EVERY Chelsea Heights student in the 2024-25 school year!