Davis School Arts Foundation
MISSION:
Arts and cultural education is crucial to the development of all children. The Davis School Arts Foundation provides partnership and support of culturally relevant arts education for children in Davis public schools. We do this through project grants, advocacy, and arts integration training for educators.
HISTORY/INFORMATION:
Davis is a community vested in the quality of its public education, volunteer involvement, and interest in the arts. DSAF is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization comprised of parents, teachers, and community members all committed to the belief that every child should have access to the arts at every grade level.
We were founded by Patricia Hershberger in 1981 in the wake of the Gann Initiative which eliminated funding for arts programs in the elementary public schools. Ms. Hershberger had the idea to restore arts funding to the public schools by raising money through a matching funds foundation. The foundation would donate money to the district as long as the district matched that money with funds of its own. In the summer of 1981, this unique community-district partnership was formed. Ms. Hershberger assembled seven other like-minded people, and the Davis School Arts Foundation was born. It has since been, and continues to be, only through the generous contributions of members in the private & business community of Davis that the DSAF & the DJUSD are able to keep the arts available to all students in our public schools.