By Collin Kelley
INtown Editor
A decade ago, Camille Russell Love and a friend were planning to meet up at the Woodruff Arts Center for an afternoon of art and culture. Love extended the invitation to her friend’s daughter, whose response was, “Where’s the Woodruff Arts Center?”
“I thought… wow! This young woman has lived in Atlanta her whole life and has never been to the Woodruff. It truly disturbed me,” Love recalled.
As the director of Atlanta’s Office of Cultural Affairs, Love decided to do something about. She had dreamed of partnering with Atlanta Public Schools (APS) to offer cultural field trips to students, but wasn’t sure how to coordinate, much less fund, such a mammoth undertaking.
Nine years later, the Cultural Experience Project (CEP) just began a new season and more than 275,000 APS students have been exposed to free art and culture institutions in Atlanta. The program provides pre-K through 12th grade students the opportunity to visit a cultural destination each year free of charge as part of class field trip.
The 2013-14 CEP year kicked off in September with pre-K students visiting the Atlanta Children’s Museum and kindergartners getting up close and personal with the flora and fauna at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.
As the school year continues, APS students will be seeing shows are checking out plays, concerts, performances and exhibitions at Atlanta Ballet, Chattahoochee Nature Center, Ballethnic Dance Company, Cyclorama and Civil War Museum, Alliance Theatre, Michael C. Carlos Museum, High Museum of Art, Georgia Shakespeare, Atlanta Opera and the Rialto Center for the Arts.
Love said that each grade level is matched with an event, exhibition or experience that is germane to what is being taught during the academic year and the students’ age. “We wanted to make sure this wasn’t a fluff trip,” Love said.
Love also recalled 10 years ago going before the Atlanta City Council to request free admission for all APS fifth graders to the Cyclorama as a “beta test” for what would become CEP. But Love immediately saw a snag: transportation.
“We offered free admission so the parents could take the students anytime, but we found out that many couldn’t pay for the transportation, and that was a barrier,” she said.
As Love and her office began reaching out to the arts organizations into the city – which were all receptive to CEP from the outset – she also picked up the phone and called Turner Broadcasting and asked them about funding the transportation for the students during the school year. “They were all for it,” Love said.
“It is an honor to be a founding partner of the Cultural Experience Project,” said Kristina Christy, Director, Corporate Responsibility at Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. “One of the primary barriers for youth being able to attend cultural events is the cost of transportation, so we decided that’s how we would get involved. To date we’ve provided more than 6,000 bus trips for the program.”
APS Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Dr. Linda Anderson said she was excited about the continued partnership with CEP. “Our students have been able to participate in rich learning opportunities that introduce them to some of our city’s premier venues for the arts, while deepening their understanding and appreciation for the arts as well,” Anderson said.
Sponsors for this year’s CEP include the National Endowment for the Arts, The Zeist Foundation Inc., Turner Broadcasting Inc., The Charles Loridans Foundation, The Mark and Evelyn Trammell Foundation, The Coca-Cola Foundation, The Kendeda Fund, The High Museum Art Access Program and The City of Atlanta.
Love calls CEP and its partners a “win-win” for everyone involved.
“I am excited that students of all ages are getting to know this part of their city,” Love said. “Some of these kids would never go to a play or museum, but we are getting them out of their community and showing them there is a much bigger and different world. It’s inspiring and thrilling.”
For more information about CEP, visit ocaatlanta.com or call (404) 546-7957.
