Dear Friends,
As we approach the end of the year, I want to thank you, not only for your past support, but for the role you play in shaping what’s possible for students across San Diego.
This year marked an important milestone for the VAPA Foundation with the launch of Prebys Sparx, expanding our work by bringing the arts and social-emotional learning directly into classrooms. Already, we are seeing students build confidence, strengthen communication skills, and discover new ways to understand themselves and one another through the arts.
What began as an ambitious vision has quickly become a powerful reality. This year, community arts partners have been scheduled across 145 classrooms, exceeding our original goal of 135. Some programs are already underway, with others launching in the months ahead.
This strong start shows what’s possible when the arts are placed intentionally at the heart of education, and it sets the stage for even greater impact in the year ahead.
2025 Impact
This year, the VAPA Foundation reached students in powerful and varied ways; across classrooms, stages, campuses, and communities. We have reached 39 schools this year, a milestone we’ve never reached in a single year before!
Through Arts Access, we partnered with 12 schools to bring arts instruction into 23 classrooms, reaching more than 1,500 students through in-class programming, schoolwide assemblies, and teacher professional development.
We expanded learning beyond the school day with our Middle School Summer Camp, serving students from four schools in collaboration with eight community arts partners—supporting creativity, connection, and continued engagement through the summer months.
Students also experienced the arts on a larger stage through Honor Concerts and Showcases, including performances at the Rady Shell and the Jacobs Music Center. These moments brought multiple schools together, creating shared experiences of pride, collaboration, and achievement.
In addition, our community collaborations—from a Day of Dance with Mesa College to UC San Diego field trips and a districtwide 4th Grade Recorder Concert—connected students to the broader arts ecosystem and helped them see themselves as part of a vibrant creative community.
What Your Support Makes Possible
When you give to the VAPA Foundation, you are sustaining the full ecosystem that makes this work possible, including:
- Teaching artists working directly with students
- Partnerships with trusted local arts organizations rooted in our community
- Training, coordination, and program design that ensure quality and consistency
- The operational backbone that allows us to serve schools responsibly and at scale
This year laid the groundwork for something lasting—an approach designed not only to deliver programs, but to grow and evolve with the community.
A Community United Through the Arts
At the heart of this work is partnership.
This year alone, we collaborated with 20 individual community arts organizations, each bringing their expertise, creativity, and care into schools and student spaces. This collaborative model is what makes the VAPA Foundation’s work unique.
We act as a connector, aligning schools, artists, and cultural organizations around a shared goal: strengthening arts education for students across San Diego.
By uniting the community through partnership, we are building something larger than any single program, a collective effort that supports students while strengthening the region’s arts ecosystem.
What Comes Next
As we look ahead, our focus is on systems-level change.
We are building a collective impact model that aligns schools, arts organizations, educators, and community partners around one shared goal: increasing access to arts education for every student. Rather than working in isolation, we are coordinating resources, data, and partnerships to create a more sustainable, connected arts education landscape.
This next phase is about strengthening the infrastructure that makes access possible, so arts education is not dependent on chance, geography, or individual school budgets, but embedded into how our community supports students.
A Year-End Invitation
As the year comes to a close, I invite you to renew your support with a year-end gift that helps carry this momentum forward.
Your contribution ensures that creativity, connection, and opportunity remain part of the educational experience for students across our region—not just this year, but for years to come.
Please join us before the end of the year in making a meaningful investment in arts education. Together, we can continue building a future where every child has the chance to learn, grow, and thrive through the arts.
With deep gratitude,
Katelyn Woodside
Executive Director, VAPA Foundation
A Special Thank You to our Community Arts Partners
Art Reach
Arts Education Connection San Diego
Cygnet Theatre
Outside the Lens
Malashock Dance
Guitars in the Classroom
Rainforest Art Project
Triple Threat Performing Arts
The Old Globe
Classics for Kids
A Reason to Survive
Center for World Music
Diversionary Theatre
Playwrights Project
San Diego Guild of Puppetry
Storytellers of San Diego
The New Children’s Museum
The Rosin Box Project
The Expressive Arts Institute
Imagine Brave Spaces
Thanks to the Principals, Teachers, Staff, and Administrators at our partner schools. Without your partnership, our work wouldn’t be possible!
Euclid Elementary
Hamilton Elementary
Joyner Elementary
Normal Heights Elementary
Rowan Elementary
Florence Elementary
Clark Middle School
LMEC
Sequoia Elementary
Hickman Elementary
High Tech High
Wegeforth Elementary
PB/Farb Middle School
Wilson Middle School
Bell Middle School
Challenger Middle School
Creative and Performing Media Arts Middle (CPMA)
School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA)
Riley K-8
ALBA
Twain High School
Home/Hospital/Transitional
Perkins K-8
Burbank Elementary
Porter Elementary
Knox Middle School
Mann Middle School
Boone Elementary
Montgomery Middle School
Field Elementary
Rolando Park Elementary
Juarez Elementary
Taft Middle School
Longfellow K-8
Spreckles Elementary
Rodriquez Elementary
Hoover High School
Hardy Elementary
Adams Elementary