The After School Arts Program ®
Enriching lives through the arts
The After School Arts Program believes appreciation of the arts is the hallmark of both a complete person and a healthy society. Its mission is to enable children and adults to engage in artistic and cultural activities that otherwise would not be available to them. ASAP’s workshops and programs in the fine arts, theater, music, and related fields are designed not just to teach particular skills, but to nurture individual creativity, encourage group collaboration, and give participants the chance to explore new and sometimes life-changing experiences in the arts.
ASAP was founded as a nonprofit organization in 1999 with seed money in the form of a three-year grant from the Connecticut Community Foundation, then named the Waterbury Foundation, and with additional help from the Diebold and Ellen Knowles Harcourt Foundations as well as the Parks and Recreation Commission of the Town of Washington. Its initial objective was to provide children with more opportunities to participate in the arts than are offered by the public schools in Connecticut’s Region 12, comprising the towns of Bridgewater, Roxbury, and Washington.
Over the years, ASAP’s programs have blossomed from eight workshops to more than one hundred today. These activities are distinguished for being conducted by teachers who are also working artists and performers. ASAP also has expanded its offerings to include classes for preschoolers and adults, weekend workshops, field trips to museums and artists’ studios, concerts and other performances by guest artists, a thriving summer camp program, and an annual Inter-district Project that brings students from Region 12 together with those of different backgrounds and races from Waterbury schools, as well as schools in Litchfield, Torrington, Woodbury, Middlebury, and Southbury. During the 2010-11 school year ASAP had more than 4,000 participations in its programs with students coming from eighty towns throughout CT.
Because tuition fees for most ASAP courses for Region 12 students are significantly less than actual program costs, and because financial aid is given to any child who needs it in order to participate, ASAP depends heavily on fund-raising events as well as support from foundations and individual donors in response to its annual appeals and in the form of special gifts. It also receives continuing financial support from Region 12 and from each of the three towns in the school district. Without such help, ASAP could not mount its present programs.