Better Family Life, Inc.

Better Family Life, Inc. (BFL) is a community development 501(c) 3 corporation dedicated to the prosperity and growth of the American family. BFL was organized in February 1983 because of a need to find internal solutions to the crises within the African-American family.

Our mission is to plan and establish social, cultural, artistic, youth, economic, housing, and educational programs that help to promote positive and innovative changes. Much of BFL's programming is geared toward people who are unemployed, underemployed, disadvantaged, and skill-deficient.

BFL has provided cultural arts programs and activities since the organization's inception in 1983. We have presented and continue to present artists in performance venues; to produce plays, dance concerts, and musical theatre; to sponsor a national dance festival entitled "BLACK DANCE — USA: A Celebration in Movement"; provide ongoing community classes in African percussion, African dance, and Dances of the African Diaspora; and to conduct workshops held in educational institutions.

For more information on Better Family Life, Inc. please visit www.betterfamilylife.org.

Circus Day Foundation

Circus Day Foundation's mission is to teach the art of life through circus education. Through teaching and performance of circus skills, we help people defy gravity, soar with confidence, and leap over social barriers, all at the same time. Circus Day Foundation offers the chance to run away and join the circus but still be home in time for dinner.

We offer camps and classes in a wide variety of circus arts at our home inside City Museum and throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area. Through Interchange, we offer the following classes: Circus Arts, Just Juggling, Mainly Magic, Circus in the Classroom, and Be the Class Clown!

For more information on Circus Day Foundation, please visit www.circusday.org.

COCA (Center of Creative Arts)

The mission of the Center of Creative Arts (COCA) is to provide an integrated forum to foster the appreciation of the arts in the greater St. Louis community by producing and presenting performances, exhibitions, and educational programs.

Founded in 1986, COCA is a not-for-profit, community-based arts center attracting more than 50,000 people each year through its theatre series, gallery program, and education programs. COCA provides visual and performing arts instruction to 16,000 students in more than 500 classes, camps, workshops, and special events. It also offers performance opportunities for students through three student dance companies and a student theatre company. COCA has received national recognition for the outstanding quality of its programs.

In 2004 and 2006, COCA was one of eight institutions nationwide to receive Ford Foundation planning grants for school reform initiatives. COCA was charged with developing an arts-integration program rooted in the success of its Urban Arts Program. After two years of planning with a wide range of community partners, that effort resulted in Interchange.

COCA's Web site is www.cocastl.org.

Craft Alliance

Craft Alliance's mission is to inspire and educate the community in fine contemporary craft. This is accomplished by presenting innovative exhibitions of artists working today in wood, clay, fiber, glass, and metal and through programs that provide opportunities to people of all ages and backgrounds to study contemporary craft in studio classes.

Craft Alliance was founded in 1964 as a cooperative gallery in St. Louis, MO. It has become a vital art center providing community outreach, educational programs, and opportunities for artists to teach, exhibit, and market their work, forging a link between the maker, the collector, and the public.

Visit www.craftalliance.org for more information.

Dance St. Louis

Dance St. Louis' mission is to provide the St. Louis region with the world's best dance and to develop an appreciation of dance as an art form.

Dance St. Louis fulfills this mission through dance presentation, creation, and education outreach. Dance St. Louis's education outreach programs have been recognized by the National Dance Education Organization through Young Audiences' publication Arts for Learning. Its programs have also been highlighted in Acts of Achievement, the Role of Performing Arts Centers in Education, produced in partnership with the Dana Foundation, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

More information can be found at www.dancestlouis.org.

Folktale Productions

Founded in 1987, Folktale Productions represents the finest in dynamic storytellers, thought-provoking workshop leaders, award-winning authors, and inspirational keynote speakers. It strives to provide the highest caliber of entertainment and education, and is proud of the versatility and uniqueness of each of our artists.

Folktale Productions creates programs to meet the special needs of different groups, developing performances, workshops, and residencies to meet educational standards while engaging students and teachers in quality performance art.

Visit www.folktales.com for more information.

Laumeier Sculpture Park

Laumeier Sculpture Park (www.laumeier.org) is an open-air museum of more than 100 acres, featuring an outdoor sculpture collection of more than 90 permanent and temporary sculptures of modern and contemporary art, an indoor museum gallery, amphitheatre, and hiking trails.

Changing exhibitions, concerts, educational programs, lectures, and special events developed at Laumeier Sculpture Park support the museum's mission: to initiate a lifelong process of cultural awareness, enrich lives, and encourage creative thinking by actively engaging people in experiences of sculpture and nature simultaneously.

Visit www.laumeier.com for more information.

Missouri Botanical Garden

The mission of the Missouri Botanical Garden is "to discover and share knowledge about plants and their environment, in order to preserve and enrich life."

Today, 147 years after opening, the garden is a National Historic Landmark, a center for research, education, and horticultural display. The garden's 79 acres include the vibrant tropical rainforest that thrives inside the Climatron® conservatory. Other outstanding displays include the Japanese, Chinese, English, Ottoman, and Victorian gardens.

More than 4,000 trees live on the grounds, including some rare and unusual varieties and a few stately specimens dating back to the 19th century, when Garden founder Henry Shaw planted them.

Learn more about the Missouri Botanical Garden at www.mobot.org.

Parsons Blewett Memorial Fund

The Parsons Blewett Memorial Fund was created in 1916 by Dr. Ben Blewett, Superintendent of the St. Louis Public School District, using his own resources. His intent was to provide scholarships for teachers serving the city public schools, who desired to improve their educational and or professional development.

Individual teachers may apply to the Fund three times a year for funding. Once a year, special grants may be requested to fund enhanced professional development activities in a common field or area for a selected group of teachers.

Regional Arts Commission

Founded in 1985, the Regional Arts Commission (RAC) is a cultural catalyst in the St. Louis area, providing financial, technical, promotional, and other support for arts organizations. Directed by a board of 15 commissioners appointed by the chief executives of St. Louis City and County, RAC is a pivotal force in the continuing development and marketing of the arts in the region.

This year, 210 of the area's arts organizations, consortia and cultural programs, large and small, received grant awards totaling more than $3.4 million, funded by a portion of the hotel/motel room sales tax.

RAC's four-story facility, including the area's first Cultural Resource Center, is located at 6128 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, MO, 63112, in the exciting new stretch of The Loop neighborhood.

Saint Louis Zoo

As one of the few free zoos in the U.S., the Saint Louis Zoo is a popular destination for people of all ages and backgrounds. In fact, it is ranked as America's No.1 Zoo by Zagat/Parenting Magazine.

The Saint Louis Zoo is also a world-class conservation organization. It is home to more than 800 species of animals — many of them endangered — as well as a leader in field research on behalf of many threatened animal species.

The Saint Louis Zoo is also committed to conservation education. We provide a wide variety of educational opportunities and experiences that foster an appreciation of wild animals and wild places.

More information about the Saint Louis Zoo can be found at www.stlzoo.org.

Sextant Technology Partners, Inc.

With 25 years of experience, Sextant Technology Partners helps small and medium-sized businesses strategically integrate technology with their most important business goals.

Sextant provides consulting services, turnkey network implementation, and strategic support of technology issues, whether complementing an in-house IT team or performing as the sole IT support as situations require.

Sextant Technology Partners, Inc. is proud to provide a supportive role to Interchange in its mission of arts integration within the St. Louis Public Schools.

More information about Sextant is available at www.sextant-technology.com.

Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis

Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis is in its seventh year of producing an annual Shakespeare play in Forest Park in the late spring, free to the public. Throughout the year, Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis reaches diverse audiences by providing educational programs for schools and the community at large.

For further information about the Festival and its programs, visit www.sfstl.com or call (314) 531-9800.

Springboard to Learning & Young Audiences of St. Louis

Springboard to Learning & Young Audiences of St. Louis offers arts, cultural, humanities, math, and science programs to schools and community groups in the St. Louis Metropolitan area, the Eastern half of Missouri, and the Metro East region of Illinois.

Our programs enrich the lives of an estimated 120,000 children each academic year through performances, workshops, short and long-term residencies. We work closely with classroom teachers and help them grow professionally through individual professional development sessions and our annual Connections Institute that brings artists and classroom teachers together. Through generous support from regional, state, civic and business institutions, foundations, and individuals, around 2/3rds our programs hours reach children in underserved schools.

Springboard to Learning & Young Audiences of St. Louis is the result of a 2006 merger, which brought together two organizations with a combined 89 years of service. We have been a part of Saint Louis Public Schools since 1965.

To learn more about Springboard to Learning & Young Audiences of St. Louis, visit www.springboardtolearning.org.

St. Louis ArtWorks

Created in 1995, St. Louis ArtWorks has served more than 1000 youth by providing a unique job opportunity in the visual, literary, and performing arts. Young adults, 14 – 21 years old, are hired to work as an apprentices with some of the region's most notable artists in a summer, fall, and spring employment program. Definitely not your average summer or after-school job, St. Louis ArtWorks is an innovative way for teens to learn new disciplines in the arts, gain life skills, boost self-esteem, and pocket a hard-earned paycheck.

Learning to create individual works of art, the business of art, and the importance of art in the community, teens gain skills that are valuable in any future profession.

For more information, visit www.stlartworks.org.

St. Louis Poetry Center

The St. Louis Poetry Center, now celebrating its 60th anniversary, is an educational workshop, outreach, and public reading resource for poets and poetry audiences in the St. Louis area and across the bi-state region. Through a structure of free monthly workshop/critiques, guest readings, community workshops, poetry contests, community collaborations, our newsletter and Web site, the Poetry Center creates numerous opportunities for the appreciation and advancement of poetry.

Through our free community outreach workshops in schools, children's homes, community centers, and detention facilities, the center strives to affirm self-expression, encourage literacy, and inspire future poets from a variety of cultural and economic backgrounds.

STAGES St. Louis

Entering its 22nd season in 2008, STAGES St. Louis is a professional, not-for-profit organization dedicated to producing the indigenous American art form of musical theatre.

STAGES is also firmly committed to providing performing arts educational opportunities to our community and serves hundreds of students each year both at the STAGES Performing Arts Academy and through numerous outreach programs in the St. Louis Public Schools as well as throughout the St. Louis region.

More information can be found at www.stagesstlouis.org.

The Arts and Education Council

The Arts and Education Council is a nonprofit organization that raises funds from the private sector to support the arts and arts education activities in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

The Arts and Education Council, founded in 1963, has raised and distributed more than 88 million dollars in support of the arts and arts education in and around St. Louis, MO. The Council, with your help, keeps art happening throughout our 16-county metropolitan area.

With the assistance of the Arts and Education Council, more than 2.7 million children and adults experience music, theatre, dance, and literary and visual arts. The Arts and Education Council supports nearly 100 arts organizations in our community. These organizations provide art education and outreach programs throughout the year.

This year, the Arts and Education Council moved into its new home, the Centene Center for Arts and Education. This magnificent facility houses 12 arts organizations under one roof, collaborating and sharing resources, vision and unique space.

More information can be found at www.keeparthappening.org.

The Black Rep

The Black Rep is the country's premier African-American theatre company, providing platforms for the interpretations of theatre, dance, and other creative expressions from the African-American perspective.

We are committed to Entertaining Diverse Audiences, Educating Promising Youth, and Enriching Our Community through main-stage productions and educational programs that touch the lives of more than 80,000 people each year.

The Black Rep offers education and community programs to assist educators and community groups in efforts to provide holistic academic experiences for young people.

More information about the Black Rep is available at www.theblackrep.org.

The Green Center

The Green Center is an arts and environmental organization dedicated to helping people experience the wonder of nature, to protecting the ecosystems of our world, to encouraging the creation of art inspired by nature, and to building a spirit of community with the natural world.

At the heart of The Green Center are its outdoor spaces that include learning and demonstration gardens on the headquarters' grounds; a half-acre prairie within a short walk of the headquarters; a half-acre Missouri wetland; the 26-acre Ruth Park Woods; and an Arboretum in University City's Heman Park.

You can learn more about The Green Center at www.thegreencenter.org.

The Magic House

The Magic House is a not-for-profit organization that provides children with hands-on learning experiences designed to be fun, engaging, and memorable in a creative and stimulating environment.

With more than 100 interactive exhibits, The Magic House has received national recognition for its exhibits and educational programming and is now one of the most attended children's museums in the country with 400,000 visitors annually.

More information about The Magic House can be found at www.magichouse.com.

The Saint Louis Art Museum

The Saint Louis Art Museum is one of the nation's leading comprehensive art museums, with collections that include works of exceptional quality from virtually every culture and time period. Areas of notable depth include Oceanic art, pre-Columbian art, ancient Chinese bronzes, and European and American art of the late 19th and 20th centuries, with particular strength in 20th century German painting.

The museum also offers a full range of featured exhibitions, a research library, a varied schedule of special events, and community and educational programming.

Admission to the museum and its collection is free every day. Admission fees to featured exhibitions vary; admission to featured exhibitions is always free on Friday. Learn more about the museum's collection through our free, one-hour docent-led tours offered every Tuesday through Sunday at 1:30 p.m.

More information about the St. Louis Art Museum can be found at www.stlouis.art.museum.

The St. Louis Public Schools Foundation

The St. Louis Public Schools Foundation is a broadly based, not-for-profit
501(c)(3) organization founded in 1998 for the purpose of securing, focusing, and managing local, regional, and national resources to promote educational success for the St. Louis Public Schools (SLPS).

The foundation seeks to be a vehicle through which general and dedicated funding can be used to develop and initiate specifically targeted programs that will result in both immediate and long-term improvements in educational outcomes for SLPS students.

Among the many programs sponsored by the foundation are the SLPS Fine Arts Fair and SLPS Performing Arts Night at the Fox Theatre.

Worldways Museum

Worldways is one of only three known children's museums in the U.S. totally devoted to global literacy and multicultural education. When it opened in 1996, Worldways was on the cutting edge in foreseeing the need for today's children to acquire the knowledge and cross-cultural skills that are required to succeed in the global society in which they will inevitably live and work.

Its mission is to develop multicultural exhibits and programs aimed at helping children, primarily aged 4 – 10, discover and understand cultural diversity, learn simple expressions in foreign languages, and appreciate the history and culture of different countries, as well as to build bridges for cross-cultural contacts between St. Louis area children and their peers in the rest of the world.

More information is available at www.worldways.org.