The Gunn Winslow Foundation received a thank you for our support of the Inspired Child program.
Patricia Ruane, the Director of Development for Dumbarton Arts & Education, which is the creator of the Inspired Child program sent us the following.
“Support from the Gunn Winslow Foundation has been essential in ensuring we are able to continue serving more children, teachers, and families with these transformational programs each year. Thank you for your partnership in giving children powerful and joyful early learning experiences that allow them to build a strong foundation for life.”
Ruane was also kind enough to provide additional information about the program, which can be found below.
Inspired Child, a program of Dumbarton Arts & Education
The first five years of a child’s life are a critical period of development, when their brain is growing rapidly, and experiencing high-quality education during this time has long-lasting positive impacts.
Inspired Child supports children’s cognitive, physical, and social-emotional development through arts-based education that encourages play and creativity, advances children’s brain development, supports their social-emotional well-being, and fosters a lifelong love of learning. Our specialized programs for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers are increasing access to arts-based learning for children in underserved communities and helping children arrive at kindergarten fully prepared to succeed and thrive.
In the past five years, Inspired Child has grown exponentially – in FY14, we served 119 students, and in FY24, 1,588 children experienced a classroom residency. There is incredibly high demand for our programs because teachers can see the impact that arts-based learning has on their students, and we also provide hands-on professional development for teachers in arts integration and family engagement opportunities, like Celebrations of Learning at the end of the residency where families can see their children’s progress and learn new ways to support their development at home.
The Gunn Winslow team is honored, humbled and inspired by what this organization is accomplishing for children in the DC area.
More about Dumbarton Arts and Inspired Child can be found on their website here.
