Chris Gamez ARTreach Urban Arts Program Director
Eiland student practices his movesEiland Elementary in Houston
ARTreach has completed a 12 session Urban Arts program at Eiland Elementary in the Klein School District. Eiland is a Title 1 school with 670 children. They lacked sufficient funding for enrichment programs and could identify a high number of children at risk. Funding for this Urban Arts Program was made possible in part by a grant to ARTreach from the Texas Commission on the Arts and the new TCA Arts Respond Grants Program supporting education and children at risk.

Chris Gamez is the Project Director overseeing the development of ARTreach Urban Arts and URGEWORKS Programs supporting children at risk. He and his team of dancers worked two hours a day for six weeks to teach 40 1st-3rd graders to dance. Both groups successfully choreographed their own routine and performed in front of an audience of teachers, family members and school administrators on the final day of the program. The Urban Arts Dance program supports TEKS objectives for math, and promotes team work. This program reinforces character traits related to perseverance and respect. There is also an anti-gang and drug abuse awareness component associated with this program.

All ARTreach programs support educational objectives and social skills development. The impact of this program and its success is determined by improvements in the student’s overall grades, behavior or attitude based on report cards, conduct reports, teacher surveys and collected testimony. Overall improvements were recorded in all categories.