Art Works for Kids History
Beverley Taylor Sorenson, a tireless champion for both education and the arts, founded Art Works for Kids in 1995. Beverley grew up in Salt Lake in a home in which art and education played a major role. She read literature and learned ballet and piano. Beverley graduated from University of Utah’s education program and taught kindergarten in Brooklyn. While in New York, she met the man she would eventually marry, biotechnology pioneer James LeVoy Sorenson, who passed away in January 2008.
With her background in education and personal experience in art, Beverley has a strong belief in the necessity of teaching art in elementary school. She raised eight children of her own, and had a grandson who was struggling in school, so she was interested in finding a method of teaching arts that would help improve academic performance, self-discipline, creativity and self-confidence for her grandchildren and for all Utah children.
To view a full bio on Beverley Sorenson, click here.
Development
With a small team of professional arts educators, Beverley began developing Art Works for Kids in 1997. She and the Sorenson family’s charitable organization, Sorenson Legacy Foundation, have committed more than $45 million to developing the Art Works for Kids model and to promoting integrated arts education methods.
Beverley’s strategy included establishing higher education programs to train those who teach art to elementary school children and to fund interdisciplinary research to ensure quality implementation. The state’s four major research universities are participating: Brigham Young University, Southern Utah University, Utah State University and the University of Utah. Today, the Art Works for Kids program collaborates with these universities along with the Utah State Office of Education, Utah Arts Council, Utah PTA and other community organizations, and has helped educate more than 100,000 children.
When the Art Works for Kids model proved highly effective, Beverley became an advocate for passing arts education legislation in Utah. In 2002 she led the effort to convince the legislature to fund a pilot program increasing the number of schools served by Art Works for Kids. She was successful, but when legislators cut money to the program due to budget shortfalls, she filled in the gap with her own funds.
In 2006 Beverley united the Utah State Office of Education, Utah PTA, Utah Arts Council and others in a partnership to lobby the legislature to commit to elementary school arts education. Through coordinated initiatives and close working relationships with legislators, they gathered strong support for a proposal to expand the number of schools providing quality arts education.
In 2008, the Utah Legislature passed a $16 million, four-year program to provide high-quality arts education for children in more than 50 elementary schools across the state. The money enabled the hiring of school-assigned arts specialists to work with teachers in classrooms, promoted professional development training partnerships with universities, and provided equipment and art materials. The multi-year funding was designed to allow educators and state leaders time to rigorously document the effectiveness of the Arts Works for Kids teaching model. The legislature named the initiative the “Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program.”
Unfortunately, the 2009 legislature cut 37 percent of the allocated money in response to an economic downturn. This would have eliminated arts specialists for the 2010-11 school year. Friends of Art Works for Kids, a grassroots support group, began a lobbying campaign with a whistle-stop tour of the state and urged parents, educators and concerned citizens to contact legislators and ask them to reverse the budget cuts.
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert heard parents’ concerns and showed his support for by proposing $1.3 million in funding for the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program in his 2010 budget. The legislature reduced this appropriation to $658,000, which along with the remaining $2.8 million from the initial funding was enough to pay for arts specialists during the 2010-11 school year – third year of the evaluation period.
In order to continue the program for the crucial fourth year of the evaluation period, Friends of Art Works for Kids is organizing its efforts again to request more than $3 million from the legislature during the 2011 legislative session. To learn how you can become a friend, please visit Get Involved.