Community/Schools Partnership for the Arts (C/SPA) was created in 1996 as an official advisory committee for the Superintendent of the Sarasota County Schools. This unique partnership between the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County (formerly Sarasota County Arts Council) and the Sarasota Public School District is comprised of school and district administrators, teachers and community arts education advocates.
C/SPA works to strengthen arts education within Sarasota County, increasing the opportunity for all students to receive instruction from arts-certified teachers.
The Artists in Schools Program of the Arts and Cultural Alliance began in 2011 to train professional teaching artists who support student standards in the classroom through the integration of the arts across all curricula. Through intensive training, teaching artists have studied standards and connected them to their teaching artist residencies.
Areas include music, filmmaking, drama/theatre, visual art, magic, storytelling, poetry, dance, and japanese theatre/arts.