Michael Bracey's Colleagues at Artportunity Knocks
Michael Bracey's Contact Details
678-355-8734
Greater Atlanta Area
Artportunity Knocks
Michael Bracey's Company Details
Artportunity Knocks first began as a small initiative in Smyrna, GA to use the arts as a way of spreading positivity throughout the Cobb County community. Eleven years ago, the first informal music class was offered and class sizes quickly grew to almost 40 participants within a few short months. With such rapid growth, the founders realized they were meeting a great need within their community and debuted the organization as an official 501(C)(3) nonprofit in Cobb County in 2009. Since then, the mission of Artportunity Knocks has been to empower youth to make positive and smart choices while increasing opportunities in the Arts, Education, Community Service and Bridging Cultures. Our programs are the bridge between arts and education so that youth in our communities can have positive social-emotional outlets while also receiving academic support simultaneously. We recognize that arts education activities are often the first to be eliminated from school budgets, so we offer a variety of arts enrichment courses to engage students and community youth in artistic expression to fill in that gap.Artportunity Knocks' goal is to provide underserved students a state-of-the-Art industry experience in fields not easily accessible to disadvantaged children. More than 75% of the students that Artportunity Knocks serves in Cobb County come from low-income and single parent homes, and a large majority of participants also qualify for free and reduced lunch. Artportunity Knocks has also expanded its services to reach vulnerable youth in the foster care system through partnerships with the Department of Human Services and Cobb Parks and Recreation. To meet the evolving needs of the children from low-income families and disadvantaged backgrounds, Artportunity Knocks has transformed its programs to be free, or low cost, so that no child is excluded based on economic status. Artportunity Knocks has established itself as a leading Arts Education organization across America!