Background and Purpose

In 2019, the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro (CFGG) created an endowment to honor CFGG President Walker Sanders for his 20 years at the foundation and his work in developing the successful Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts. Sanders wanted funds from the endowment to be used to expand the experiences of GCS students who would not typically have the opportunity to see live theater performances.  

The Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro initiated a partnership with Guilford County Schools and Tanger Center to make Sanders’ vision a reality. Each year, sixth-grade students at six TItle 1 middle schools will have the opportunity to participate in a project-based learning activity centered on the arts and career pathways in the arts. Projects will be scored and the highest-scoring projects at the school level will advance to a district showcase featuring projects from all participating schools. As the endowment grows over time, more tickets will become available for students — the goal is to someday have enough funding to send the entire sixth grade to the theater!

Students across the district will use the Arts to demonstrate their understanding of a concept in any content area using the suggestions below or creating their own Arts Integration Project Based Learning approach. Why Arts Integration and Project Based Learning as assessment? Arts integration builds greater understanding across disciplines, supporting authentic experiences that engage and motivate learners. Through creative inquiry, arts integration generates a level of personal connection and insight that builds the learner’s capacity for making connections between self, others and the world. Through the connection of Arts Integration into all subject areas and Project Based Learning, students will be able to apply desired skills, work collaboratively or demonstrate abilities while working independently.

On this page, you will find a timeline for the project, a run of show for students advancing to the October 2023 Showcase, and a crosswalk for most content areas with targeted 6th grade standards and Arts Integration Project Based Learning assessment ideas.

Please note, that you may need to be logged into your GCS Google Account to access these documents.