Focus Area: Early Childhood

Grant Amount: $13,000

Located in south Minneapolis. CTC is the nation’s largest and most acclaimed theatre for young people and serving nearly 275,000 attendees annually. CTC’s engagement and learning programs annually serve more than 85,000 young people and their communities through Theatre Arts Training, student matinees, Neighborhood Bridges, and early childhood arts education programs.

Grant supports CTC continuing its Early Bridges program in collaboration with PICA Head Start. Early Bridges is a curriculum of play-based activities involving storytelling, music, puppets, and movement for children experiencing toxic stress. The program focuses on children ages 0-5 and explores what it means to use the arts in trauma-based care. The collaboration with PICA will allow CTC to expand programming to five Head Start sites and 150 children ages 3-5, 95% of whom are Black, Indigenous, and children of color.