(Estimated Foundation Budget $150,000)

      High-achieving preschools know that art is a natural activity to support the free play and learning by doing of children. The freedom to manipulate different materials in an organic and unstructured way allows for exploration and experimentation. Art enables preschool children to practice a wide range of valuable skills for life and learning. Free expression is also suitable for health and well-being. Children need creative outlets to relieve stress and work through life’s problems. Specifically,
The Castle Foundation encourages art education to:

• Refine basic motor skills such as grasping pencils, crayons, paintbrushes, and chalk;
• The arts promote critical cognitive development, such as pattern use, learning cause and effect, critical thinking, and planning;
• Preschools with arts education increase awareness of Hawaii cultural diversity;
• Math concepts such as size, shape, making comparisons, counting, and spatial reasons are fostered by robust arts programs;
• Language skills benefit from listening, open-ended questions, and mastering a more extensive vocabulary to describe the world;
• Arts education often has enhanced impact on lower-income students.

      As part of a historical commitment to excellence of early learning in Hawaii and beyond, the Castle Foundation invites applications from accredited preschools that desire to improve existing arts programs or to initiate them as part of overall early education. The applications might propose grants of up to $20,000- $25,000 to purchase art supplies, conduct professional development of preschool teachers, or assess outcomes of arts-related early learning. Other arts activities can be discussed with the Foundation’s executive director. The Castle Foundation is also interested in partnering with a large and well-run arts education organization to support teacher training for the arts in the pre-K classroom. Maui’s superb Hui No’eau Visual Arts Center is a fine example of an organization committed to teacher education and providing a venue for arts education for preschools and kindergartens. This organization has been a Castle Foundation grantee for many years.

      Organizations wishing to apply should develop a careful budget and provide evidence that the school is increasing its own investments in arts education or will apply to other foundations and corporations for matching funds for a Castle grant.

      As always, please use this general format for your application after the Foundation has discussed your proposal ↓↓↓

Completed applications will contain the following key elements:

1. A cover letter requesting the funds and indicating the Board of Director’s commitment to quality improvements The letter must be signed by the preschool’s board chairperson and the signature of the preschool director;
2. A short description of the preschool, its enrollment, the current description of the teaching force, an operational budget, a budget indicating the cost of increasing quality, a copy of the most recent audit (or financial statement), and a short history of the preschool. Please also indicate the preschool’s current accreditation status or of the school’s intention to apply for accreditation;
3. A list of the preschool’s governing board;
4. Please include a letter from the proposed accrediting agency which should indicate the preschool is actively participating in accreditation or re-accreditation activities.
5. A complete description of the need for improved quality. Indicate how a grant up to $25,000 would improve quality and allow the school to achieve or retain accreditation status. Please include a timetable for the improvements and how the funding would enable the preschool to improve;
6. Please indicate what additional resources are available from the school or other external donors will be used to match the Castle Foundation grant. This is not required to be considered, but applications that seek additional external and internal resources to improve the school’s quality will be favored Castle Foundation funding.
7. Include a brief statement that the school welcomes all races, ethnicities, genders and religions.
8. If the preschool has not applied to the Castle Foundation within the past decade, please enclose the preschool’s charter, bylaws, and IRS tax exempt letter.