TWIGS Mission The Baltimore School for the Arts (BSA) TWIGS (To Work In Gaining Skills) program provides initial artistic encounters as well as advanced instruction for Baltimore City elementary and middle school students in dance, music (instrumental and vocal), theatre (acting and stage design & production), visual arts, and film & visual storytelling. BSA/TWIGS offers opportunities for artistic access to children from all of Baltimore City’s neighborhoods and provides exceptional training to prepare students for further arts experiences, including the BSA high school and beyond.
TWIGS Vision We respect the young creative mind and exist to nurture its passion and potential. We believe that exploration of an artistic field leads to a wide range of positive outcomes for both the student and the community.
Dear Friends, We can confidently say that the 39th year of the Baltimore School for the Arts (BSA) TWIGS program was unlike any other in its history. The COVID-19 pandemic arrived in March 2020, abruptly ending in-person classes and programming for all Baltimore City schools, and we have worked continuously to adjust our operations to meet circumstances outside of our control ever since. Due to the pandemic, TWIGS classes were all provided virtually this year, and everyone involved helped us to make our classes creative and artistic spaces even through Zoom! Our students, their families, and our teachers continue to be amazingly resilient. The activities in our virtual classrooms have yielded valuable arts experiences and instruction, as well as the majority of our desired program outcomes for our students, despite COVID-related obstacles. Our adaptive remote programming would not have been possible without our partnerships with the incredibly generous greater Baltimore philanthropic community. We continue to be amazed by your support and are so grateful for your commitment to Baltimore’s young artists! As we prepare for the summer and new school year ahead, we are confident that a return to full in-person operations will restore and increase the positive impact of our work. We are looking forward to having you there with us. Warm regards, 8/30/2021
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Becky Mossing ‘88 Director of TWIGS and Community Outreach
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Our Students TWIGS offers free after-school arts education and training for 2nd through 8th grade students, running for 20 to 24 weeks during the school year. This year TWIGS students pursued pre-professional training in one of five discipline areas: Dance, Music (Instrumental or Vocal), Theatre (Acting or Stage Design & Production), Visual Arts, or Film & Visual Storytelling. All students participating in TWIGS are residents of Baltimore City, and the population served is incredibly diverse! This year students came from 58 BCPSS schools, 10 parochial schools, and 18 Independent schools—16 students were homeschooled. In 2019-2020, BSA served nearly 700 children through TWIGS. In-person classes were cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and subsequently fewer students auditioned for TWIGS than in years past due to COVID-related barriers and fears. This greatly reduced the number of students enrolled in 2020-2021 and altered the number of schools and neighborhoods represented in our program. In 2020-2021, TWIGS served 500 Baltimore City elementary and middle school students. These students were very committed, as reflected in our retention and attendance outcomes: TWIGS retained 72% of its students from the 20192020 program year and saw 470 (94%) of those students continue in the program through the spring, with an average weekly attendance rate of 88%—well above our target of 85%.
Baltimore City Schools Served in 2020-2021 Abbottston Elementary Afya Public Charter School Armistead Gardens Elementary/Middle Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys Baltimore Design School Baltimore International Academy Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School Callaway Elementary City Neighbors Charter School City Neighbors Hamilton Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle ConneXions: A Community Based Arts Creative City Public Charter School Cross Country Elementary/Middle Curtis Bay Elementary/Middle Dickey Hill Elementary/Middle Dr. Nathan A. Pitts-Ashburton Elementary/Middle Elmer A. Henderson: A Johns Hopkins Partnership School Federal Hill Preparatory Academy Francis Scott Key Elementary/Middle Franklin Square Elementary/Middle Fullerton Elementary Gardenville Elementary Glenmount Elementary/Middle Govans Elementary Green Street Academy Hamilton Elementary/Middle Hampden Elementary/Middle
Hampstead Hill Academy Highlandtown Elementary/Middle School No. 215 Highlandtown Elementary/Middle School No. 237 KIPP Harmony Academy Leith Walk Elementary/Middle Lillie May Carroll Jackson School Lockerman Bundy Elementary Maree G. Farring Elementary/Middle Margaret Brent Elementary/Middle Medfield Heights Elementary Midtown Academy Morrell Park Elementary/Middle Mount Royal Elementary/Middle Northwood Elementary Patterson Park Public Charter School Pimlico Elementary/Middle Robert W. Coleman Elementary Roland Park Elementary/Middle Sandalwood Elementary Southwest Baltimore Charter School Stadium School The Mount Washington School The Green School of Baltimore The New Century School Thomas Johnson Elementary/Middle Tunbridge Public Charter School Violetville Elementary/Middle Walter P. Carter Elementary/Middle Waverly Elementary/Middle
OUR FACULTY Our TWIGS classroom faculty consists of more than 40 part-time professional artists, many of whom also teach at the high school level. These teachers, selected for their expertise and experience teaching beginning artists, model the discipline and process required to gain skills in the arts. The program also provides part-time employment to 10 student teaching assistants, BSA high school students who support our teachers in the classroom and serve as role models for our TWIGS students. They are all guided by BSA’s talented arts department heads: Laura Halm Hamilton ‘99 (Dance), Dr. Mellasenah Edwards ‘85 (Music), Rosiland Cauthen (Theatre), Archie Veale ‘85 (Visual Arts), Beatriz Bufrahi (Film & Visual Storytelling). Our TWIGS leadership team continues to guide the program, with Becky Mossing ‘88 serving as TWIGS Program Director, and Iris Andersen Grizzell ‘96 as TWIGS Program Manager. Michael Solomon also continues to serve as our School/ Parent Liaison, although he has not been at his usual post in the BSA lobby this year. In February 2021, TWIGS welcomed Outreach Fund Manager Anna Ellis ‘02, who will be working with the BSA Foundation team to fundraise for the TWIGS program and BSA outreach activities.
Director of TWIGS and Community Outreach | Becky Mossing ’88 Becky Mossing ‘88 has performed nationally and overseas. Her credits include Beauty and the Beast (nat’l tour); Cinderella Waltz (Ubu Rep – Off B’way); both productions of Hairspray in Concert with John Waters and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO); and Working with Showdown Theatre Arts, in Guildford, United Kingdom. Becky has narrated weekday and family series concerts for the BSO including Carnival of the Animals, The Remarkable Farkle McBride, Wizards and Wands, and A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. Becky’s directing credits include The Polar Express and A Remarkable Farkle McBride with the BSO, Working, Our House, Hairspray, Rent and Urinetown with Showdown Theatre Arts, UK. Her cabaret performances can be seen frequently in the Baltimore area. Mossing has been BSA’s musical theatre instructor for more than 15 years, and she directs the Hippodrome Foundation’s summer theatre camp intensives. She is a graduate New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she received the Outstanding Achievement Award in Musical Theatre. She received her Master’s in Teaching from Goucher College, with dual certification in K-8 general and special education.
TWIGS Program Manager | Iris Andersen Grizzell ’96 Iris Andersen Grizzell ‘96 holds a B.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts. Her training began at the Peabody Preparatory Institute with Dale Sehnert, followed by Classical Ballet with Caryl Maxwell and Caroline Denzler, and then Kinetics Dance Theatre with Dottie Fried and Donna Pidel. She has trained with the Eglevsky Ballet, the Washington Ballet, and the Ailey School. During her four years at California Institute of the Arts, she was nominated for the Princess Grace Award and studied abroad in London at the London Contemporary Dance School. Andersen Grizzell danced with the Pasadena Dance Theatre in California from 2003 to 2011, and from 2004 to 2011, she danced with the Francisco Martinez Dance Theatre in both concert and outreach performances throughout California. Andersen Grizzell received first place for her work in Howard County Ballet’s Young Choreographer’s Showcase in April 2011. Recently, she has performed with Bowen McCauley Dance, the Campbell Dance Experience and the Harford Ballet. She also teaches dance at Towson University and for high school students at BSA.
TWIGS PROGRAM ACTIVITIES This year, TWIGS classes were held virtually from 4:00-7:00 pm on weekdays, and from 9:00 am-3:00 pm on Saturdays. Faculty were asked to create new virtual lessons and activities for their students, which they did in a variety of ways. In Music, private lessons, sectionals, and musicianship classes were all offered via Zoom. The Visual Art teachers created activity sheets, drawing lessons, and elaborate coloring books for students. The Visual Arts department also packaged and distributed art supplies to families so that all students would have equitable access to the materials needed for class. Acting teachers created video lessons, and emailed lessons with poems for students. They also did live improvisation and theatre games with students over Zoom. Stage design & production teachers emailed or created videos of lessons and activities for students, as well as creating supply packages for students at home. And the Dance faculty shared links to online dance classes from around the world. During the pandemic, we have all been forced to learn how to connect, learn, and grow using what we have at hand, including remote technology. Even though most TWIGS program activities were able to continue in a distance learning environment, a few changes were required this year: • Center for Collaborative Arts & Technology (CCAT) programming was canceled for the year, as we did not have access to the lab, or technology that could go home with students. • The number of acting classes were reduced by one, and larger ensemble music classes (e.g., concert band, jazz band, and string orchestra) were canceled as they could not be conducted virtually. Instrument sectional classes were subsequently added to the program, which have had their own set of benefits for students but are still very different from the ensemble experience. • Both dance and music classes were extended from 20 to 24 weeks for the 2020-2021 school year to ensure adequate instruction time, made possible in part by a new grant from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. • Culminating end-of-year events were not possible for most students this year, effectively preventing them from accessing these artistic growth opportunities. Smaller virtual opportunities were offered in an effort to fill this gap.
Despite these changes, throughout the year our TWIGS families have responded with emails of gratitude, as well as videos and photos of their children participating in these classes, or actively engaging in an activity. A high note from this year was the addition of music sectional classes, in place of our ensemble classes, which generated exponential growth for some of our music students. For example, one of our 8th-grade oboe players, who we admitted to TWIGS in September 2020 despite concerns about his skill level, dramatically improved over the course of a 3-month period, and has subsequently been accepted into BSA. His teacher believes the addition of sectional classes gave this student the additional instruction time to make the necessary connections on his instrument, both musically and artistically, resulting in his successful audition.
Class Schedule
As noted, this year students pursued pre-professional training in one of five discipline areas: Dance, Music (instrumental or vocal), Theatre (acting or stage design & production), Visual Arts, or Film & Visual Storytelling. TWIGS transitioned to virtual learning in March 2020, swiftly implementing classes using Google Meet, and then transitioning to Zoom in September 2020. Weekly classes were offered as follows: • Dance: The 3rd-8th grade students were assigned participation levels based on skill. Generally, 2nd-4th grade students attended a 1-hour class once a week; 4th-5th graders attended a 1-hour class 2-3 times per week; and 6th-8th graders attended class 4-5 times per week. • Music: Instrumental students each received weekly 30-minute private lessons, in addition to sectionals and musicianship classes. Vocal students received both a choral class and a group musicianship class. • Theatre: Acting students (grades 5-8) attended one 45-90 minute class each week, while Stage Design & Production students (grades 5-8) attended one 90-minute class each week. • Visual Arts: The 4th-7th grade students attended a 2-hour class once a week, and 8th graders attended a 2-hour class twice a week. • Film & Visual Storytelling: The 8th-grade students participated in an 8-week course for two hours each week. This year the course ran from October 2020 through January 2021.
2020-2021 Course Descriptions Dance Our 3rd-8th grade students were assigned participation levels based on skill. Fundamental training in classical ballet, starting with pre-ballet and moving through the Vaganova ballet syllabus, was offered. Since we could not hold in-person auditions for dance in 2020, we did not have any new 2nd grade students this year. In addition to weekly classes, dance faculty shared live and pre-recorded performance links relating to studio topics and providing direct access to major companies and dancers around the world. Despite being virtual, middle-school dancers were still able to participate in a special class and Q&A event with BSA dance alums Nardia Boodoo ‘09 and Courtney Celeste Spears ‘12, both of whom are currently dancing professionally—Boodoo with The Washington Ballet, and Spears with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
The virtual culminating event for dance students was a screening of student dance scenes from the ballet Coppélia, a comic ballet from 1870 originally choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon. Music Comprehensive music instruction is designed to train young musicians to play an instrument, to sing, and to understand the basic elements of music. This year we provided one group piano class, one vocal class, nine musicianship classes, 10 sectional classes, and 99 private lessons for music students. Large ensemble music classes—concert band, jazz band, and string orchestra— were cancelled due to the incompatibility of the virtual platform. Instead, sectional classes were added to the program. Sectional classes have their own set of benefits for students but are still very different from the ensemble experience. Culminating events included virtual recitals for individual students. Theatre The Stage Production & Design program equips students with a variety of skills, including an introduction to set design and construction, stage lighting, and sound design. This is done through puppetry and literary theatre lessons, which are offered to 5th-8th grade students in 1.5hour classes once a week. TWIGS Acting classes emphasize expanding the students’ imagination, improvisation, and theatre games through playmaking. Since culminating theatre productions were not possible this year, students’ families were invited to sit in on the final acting and stage design & production classes to see what students have been doing throughout the year. Stage design & production also shared short videos of the students’ completed work. Visual Arts The visual arts program encourages students to explore and expand their imaginations while also developing fundamental artistic skills in drawing, painting, and sculpture. This year, 4th-7th grade students attended 2-hour classes once a week, and 8th graders attended 2-hour classes twice a week. Even without an in-person gallery opening, TWIGS students were able to share their work. At the end of the year, the TWIGS spring art exhibition was presented via the BSA Visual Arts Department website. You can still view the exhibit online here. Film & Visual Storytelling Eleven 8th-grade students were invited to participate in the Film & Visual Storytelling program this year. They attended a 2-hour class each week. The goal of this course is to help students develop their storytelling skills by using the principles of storytelling and the classical three-act story structure. At the end of the program, students have a portfolio of work to audition for the recently established Charles C. Baum Film and Visual Storytelling Department in the high school. This year our students participated in an 8-week course, from October 2020 through January 2021, ending with a culminating virtual film screening for students and their families. Center for Collaborative Arts & Technology Without access to the lab or technology to go home with students, CCAT classes were not possible this year. We anticipate this programming will be restored in October 2021, when we return to in-person instruction.
Typically, CCAT students (grades 5-8) work alongside BSA’s CCAT Director in the CCAT Suite. During the 2019-2020 program year our 5th-6th grade students were introduced to basic computer skills, as well as the operation of DSLR cameras for photography and video, image editing in Adobe Photoshop, basic video editing and animation in Adobe After Effects, and 3D design and printing using Tinkercad. These classes normally meet for two hours each Saturday.
Auditions for the 2021-2022 Year
Due to the pandemic, our TWIGS audition process transitioned to virtual platforms this year. The TWIGS re-enrollment process and new student auditions began in May and ended in July 2021, as the planning, execution, and processing of fully virtual re-enrollment and auditions took a great deal of time and administrative effort. At the end of our 2020-2021 program year, 327 TWIGS were eligible to re-enroll or reaudition for the next year of TWIGS. As of September 1, 2021, 246 (75%) of those students have been re-enrolled for the 2021-2022 program year, with 81 responses still pending. During our virtual new student auditions, we had 270 students participate, 223 (82.5%) of whom have been accepted. We are currently in the process of completing their enrollment for the new year, and creating schedules for TWIGS classes based on students’ grade and skill levels. We anticipate again serving 500 students this year, with plans for increased school and partner communications, outreach, and recruitment activities, to bring our enrollment in 2022-2023 back to pre-pandemic levels.
ARTREACH BSA’s outreach programming, also known as “artreach,” changed course during this school year, as the COVID-19 pandemic impacted both school-based and off-campus activities. We had originally planned to continue our annual BSA artreach programs—such HelloTWIGS! and First Look—but constraints related to the pandemic prevented us from being on campus in person and hosting events for partner organizations. We hope to renew our school partnerships and outreach activities on campus in the coming year. This year we have instead focused on TWIGS-related outreach and have worked to sustain our relationships with current school partners, non-government organizations, and funders. The Hippodrome Foundation, for example, brought in a special dance master class for our TWIGS students, and they treated all our middle school students to a virtual viewing of Newsies, with a trivia game following the screening. We also began to establish relationships with community organizations in East Baltimore, including Southern Baptist Church and the Mary Harvin Transformation Center, where we piloted a summer community dance class on the church campus, serving 10 additional students. The BSA Foundation sponsored this initial pilot program on the Southern Baptist Church campus.
Thank you for an amazing dance program. The girls were excited about the classes and very proud of their work. Morey is an excellent instructor and brought a lot of energy and spirit. Thank you again!!! -Parent of dance student at Southern Baptist Church
To see my kid find their people at TWIGS is wonderful. I cannot speak more highly of the staff and kind high school student who assists. -Parent of current student This is R’s second year in TWIGS, in stage design and production. To say TWIGS is the highlight of my kid’s week is an understatement. They talk - at length - about perspective, sketching, trying to improve drawing skills, etc. The program’s embrace and challenge has meant so much to our family. -Parent of current student
PROGRAM EVALUATION During the program year, TWIGS examines a number of process measures to determine the effectiveness and success of its programming:
Retention & Attendance
Despite the pandemic, we have seen a high level of engagement among our TWIGS students. A primary outcome for the program is year-to-year student retention, and an average weekly attendance, across all classes, of 85%. In 2020-2021, we retained 72% of students from the 2019-20 program year and have seen an attendance average of 88%. The 20202021 TWIGS program year began with 500 students enrolled in September 2020 and concluded in March 2021 with 470 students attending classes regularly, a 94% retention rate.
Successful High School Audition Preparation
The TWIGS curriculum is designed to prepare students for a successful audition to BSA or a comparable program. One of our strongest measures of programmatic success continues to be the number of TWIGS students who successfully audition. During this program year, we have continued to achieve this desired outcome for our students: 56 of the 90 TWIGS students who auditioned in January 2021 were accepted (62%), representing 41% of the incoming BSA freshman class of 2025. As of July 2021, 48 out of 125 students in the class of 2025 were in TWIGS–38% of the class of 2025.TWIGS has proven to be a crucial preparatory program for the BSA–statistics indicate that our retention rate for TWIGS students in high school is excellent. TWIGS students are early adopters to the culture of BSA as they pursue their early training in the studios and classrooms of their high school counterparts. The class of 2020 boasted 49 TWIGS alumni (53% of 92 graduating seniors). Of them, both co-valedictorians, the salutatorian, and the recipient of the Academic Achievement Award were all former TWIGS students.
Culminating Activities
As noted in our course descriptions, TWIGS events were virtual this year, as we planned them based on the current CDC guidance. For example: the Film & Visual Storytelling class virtually presented their completed videos to family and friends in January in their culminating presentation; Dance filmed scenes from their production, Coppelia, to share virtually; Music student recitals were shared via Youtube or over Zoom calls with friends and family; Visual Arts shared the TWIGS Spring Show, featuring student work that included everything from jewelry and sculpture to painting and printmaking, via their art department website. Families were invited to sit in on the final classes for both Acting and Stage Design & Production classes to see what students have been doing throughout the TWIGS year.
Artistic Development and Craftsmanship
Each individual TWIGS students’ acquisition of artistic skill, development as a young artist, and engagement in the program is measured in a variety of ways. Historically, all participants receive formalized evaluations twice this year which
provides feedback on their development. This year, due to the challenges and additional burdens of virtual learning, we were only able to provide assessments to a limited extent. Each year the data compiled from these evaluations (historical data cited below) has demonstrated that TWIGS are scoring above average in the development of their craftsmanship, ability to follow directions and focus. Every family received a copy of their child’s progress report this year, when available. Artistic development and craftsmanship are two of the most important educational components of our program. Our artist-instructors have high expectations of students, and their evaluations uphold the standards of the institution. Students are evaluated in a number of categories that vary depending on department. All ratings are on a scale of 1 (poor) through 5 (excellent) and are averaged to better determine class-wide progress level. These metrics have continually demonstrated the effort by teachers to maintain behavioral expectations and to retain student engagement in their studio work, even through virtual means. Our 2020 progress reports indicated: • Acting students in grades 5 through 8 had an average score of 4.2 in Behavior, 4 in Attentiveness/Focus, and a 4.1 in Work Habits/Craftsmanship. • In Dance, 2nd through 8th grade students average a 4.6 in Behavior, 4.2 in Attentiveness/Focus, and a 4 in Work Habits/Craftsmanship. • In Stage Design & Production, 5th through 8th graders average a 4.3 in Behavior, 3.7 in Attention/Focus, and a 4.1 in Work Habits/Craftsmanship. • In Visual Arts, students in grades 4-8 had an average rating of 4.2 in Behavior, a 4 for Attentiveness/Focus, and 4.1 in Work Habits/Craftsmanship. • In Music, a different scale is used. Students had average ratings of 4 for Musicality, 4.2 in Focus, and a 3.8 in Technique.
TWIGS CAPACITY BUILDING Much of our capacity building and program development focus this year was on the new online format for student classes and performances, as well as remote scheduling and attendance record keeping for all departments. TWIGS also continued to work with Mission Media to customize our database for program enrollment and auditions. TWIGS coordinated virtual auditions for all art departments in May 2021 for the 2021-2022 program year. During this year our program leadership and faculty members have also participated in the BSA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Initiative, which has included teacher training, selected readings, and community presentations. During the coming months we will be implementing a new scheduling and attendance system for TWIGS called Procare Solutions, a subscription-based service that will provide contactless check-in options for students traveling to/from classes, and a web-based scheduling and communication utility for faculty. We hope this will prevent crowding and lines of students in our lobby as we return to in-person operations at our school campus. Parents will be invited to download an app to their phone (Apple or Android) to check students in for classes from their car or using a QR code posted in the lobby. The TWIGS School/Parent Liaison, Michael Solomon, will continue to provide supervision in the TWIGS lobby, and will have a laptop to check-in students who do not arrive with a parent or a cell phone of their own.
2020-2021 TWIGS Board Committee Membership Ira Weinstein | Committee Chair Fred Bair Joseph Butler Morgan Gilligan Jesse Grant-Skinner Kippy Joseph Li-Wen Kang Mikey Monaghan Rodney Taylor Danielle Wharton Dominic Wiker
BOARD COMMITTEE & SUB-COMMITTEES The TWIGS Board Committee met monthly for the latter half of the TWIGS program year (meeting dates in 2021: 1/28, 2/25, 3/25, 4/22, and 5/27). In response to the TWIGS Strategic Plan 2020-2025, the Board Committee formed three subcommittees to address areas of concern. These sub-committees met monthly from December 2020 through May 2021: • Curriculum Scope & Sequence • Budget & Sustainable Funding • Outreach Planning & Implementation During its meetings, the Curriculum Scope & Sequence sub-committee began to plan a Curriculum Deep Dive Project for TWIGS. The TWIGS leadership team is working over the summer to refine this concept and gather insight from consultants Josh Campbell ‘07 and Ernest Shaw ‘87 to plan this work in greater detail. The central goals of the project are: • To document and revise our current TWIGS curriculum (across all art departments) in order to refine the quality of our arts instruction, and to create a consistent curriculum guide that could be used in mobile programming. • To improve the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) of our curriculum, as well as bringing a DEI-informed approach to instruction. This proposed curriculum project relates to the following TWIGS Strategic Plan Goals: • Refine the quality of all TWIGS [in-house] arts programs to drive excellent outcomes for students • Develop mobile programming that travels to schools/communities The Budget & Sustainable Funding sub-committee provided feedback on the current year TWIGS financials and how they were being presented to funders, as well as the range of funding included in our portfolio. In response to sub-committee comments, the TWIGS leadership team has revised the proposal budget format and conducted a per-student cost analysis of the last four years of programming. The sub-committee felt the per-student cost and the TWIGS track record of providing highly cost-efficient programming, were important details to be highlighted in our grant proposals going forward. This group will meet again in the fall to discuss program spending and fundraising prospects. Due to the upcoming change in school leadership, as former Executive Director Dr. Chris Ford prepared to retire in June 2021, the Outreach Planning & Implementation sub-committee determined that BSA/TWIGS was unable to take any significant steps around outreach planning and implementation until the new executive director was named and confirmed by the Baltimore City Public School System. However, during these meetings, a list was started of potential BSA/TWIGS partners, both national and local. The sub-committee also discussed some of the past barriers to BSA/TWIGS outreach efforts, mainly transportation to/from events, and the limited successes of taking programming off-campus versus bringing students to the BSA facility. This group will meet again in the fall to discuss outreach priorities with our new Interim Executive Director, Rosiland Cauthen.
Thank you to all of our committee and sub-committee members for their service this year!
THANK YOU TO OUR FUNDERS! Funds raised for the TWIGS program support everything from instruction and supplies, to administrative and overhead costs, and outreach initiatives. Over 60% of TWIGS annual funding is made up of grants from local government, foundations, and corporations, and some individual gifts. TWIGS received new general funding ($5,000 & above) for 2020-2021 from the following organizations during the program year: • Anonymouns Individual donors • The Baltimore Office for Promotion and the Arts (BOPA) Creative Fund • Clayton Baker Trust • The Goldsmith Family Foundation • Lockhart Vaughan Foundation, Inc. • The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation • The Joseph & Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable Funds • The Aaron Straus and Lillie Straus Foundation In February 2021, we also received an unexpected anonymous individual contribution of $30,000 in stock. As noted above, this year TWIGS also received a new grant through The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation ($100,000 over two years) to support our low-income students and offer new cultural classes and experiences. The support of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation also allowed us to extend our music and dance classes from 20 to 24 weeks in both 2020-2021 and 2021-2022. Thanks to support from the Hippodrome Foundation, we also had the opportunity to virtually share Disney’s Newsies with our TWIGS middle school students in the program, across all disciplines. After the virtual screening, TWIGS hosted a Newsies trivia event for students and their families. It was such fun and brought our community together in a beautiful way! This year approximately five percent of the total program income was generated through a $50 registration fee from TWIGS families. For those for whom this fee was a true hardship (those with qualifying for direct assistance) fee waivers were made available. The remaining funds for the program are provided by Baltimore City Public Schools, through a memorandum of understanding. We are continuing to seek funding to support a fully-staffed program in the coming year, as well as make necessary investments in COVID-related supplies and equipment to reduce contact points for our students when they return to the BSA campus in September 2021. Grant funding has been secured from the Baltimore City Public Schools, and an allocation from the Endowed Fund for the Future will support a balanced budget for both TWIGS and the BSA.
Thank you for your generous support of this important program for Baltimore’s children!