Things were going along fine in 2020 for what was then known as Arts For Learning San Diego. The organization, founded in 1963, had expanded over the years from only teaching music to five artistic disciplines.
Then COVID-19 hit.
“When you don’t know what tomorrow’s going to bring, you need something to bring you back and ground you and that’s what we get from the arts.”
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That's what Adrienne Valencia told KPBS in March of 2020, during the early days of the pandemic. What she didn’t know then was the extraordinary challenge COVID-19 would be for the organization. Like so many others, the group went virtual.
“Our teaching artists were absolutely brilliant and made those changes very quickly,” Valencia said when KPBS interviewed her last week.
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But more changes would have to be made. COVID-19 meant a significant loss of funding.
“Schools were finding that they had to put their funding in different places and so we lost about 50% of our income pretty quickly," Valencia said.
She and her staff knew that for the organization to survive, some difficult decisions were ahead.
“We let go of our office space and we’ve been working remotely since the end of October 2020. We took a few elements of our business practice and put them in-house such as our grant writing and our accounting," she said.
But all that wasn’t enough. One more big change — a painful one — was still to come. The group had been affiliated with Young Audiences of America since the late '60s. The national group has branches all over the country dedicated to bringing the arts to school children. Valencia and her board decided retaining membership with Young Audiences just wasn’t worth it.
“We just found that it made more sense for us to separate from them," she said.
Separating from Young Audiences meant change from top to bottom. The group rebranded itself; they’re now known as Arts Education Connection San Diego. But while the group has a new name and a new logo, the mission hasn’t changed.
A dedicated group of teaching artists still share the arts with children through five disciplines — music, theater, dance, visual and literary arts.
Sharing and teaching the arts to children during the darkest days of the pandemic revealed a silver lining: The separation from friends and family was eased a bit by the kind of togetherness that only the arts can bring.
“That really relates to our new name because the arts really do connect us to one another, connects us to history, connects us to science, connects us in so many different ways," Valencia said.
Now, as COVID-19 recedes and arts education returns to libraries and classrooms, Valencia said she’s more confident than ever about the future.
“The whole rebranding thing was a very intense process — it has actually re-energized us and re-energized our name in the community," she said.
KPBS interviewed Valencia in the Malcolm X Library, one of many locations where Arts Education Connection San Diego has conducted their programs. The process of returning to places like this is now underway.
“Many schools are very excited about having in-person programming again and so that is getting off the ground. Some venues are still requesting virtual programs and so we will continue to do that," said Valencia.
Continuing to do that takes financial support. If you’d like to help out, or if you’re just curious about Arts Education Connection San Diego, you can check out their newly redesigned website. The first thing you’ll see is their mission statement: Arts are essential, learning is critical and art in learning is transformative.
