Senior Project Grant Proposal
The Senior Project Grant Proposal is the capstone experience of all graduates of Boston Arts Academy. Each student creates an arts program that addresses a real community need, synthesizing knowledge and skills from both the arts and academic curricula. Often, students must act as entrepreneurs in order to succeed.
The Senior Project allows students to “give back” some of what they have gained as BAA students. This experience is an opportunity for students to apply their knowledge and passion toward a particular cause, while at the same time, prove their graduation credentials and gain experience as independent artists.
Starting in the junior year, students begin writing their grant proposals in their Junior Advisory and Art Major classes. Students complete their proposals in their Senior Advisory classes and present their work at the “Senior Project Fair” in mid-October. For this project, a grant review committee comprised of outside panelists judge each student’s work based on written and oral presentations. All students must score “Proficient” in order to graduate.
Projects are evaluated by using a rubric that contains the following criteria: Artistic Rigor, Feasibility, Community Benefit, Originality of Idea, Research and Analysis and Writing Technique.
The grant review committee selects a group of finalists to be awarded real grant money to implement their projects. Students who successfully complete their funded senior projects have a sound academic and artistic record, and embody the tenets of our Habits of the Graduate - refine, invent, connect, own - are honored as The Spirit of Elma Lewis Graduates with Distinction. Elma Lewis, founder of the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts and the National Center of Afro-American Artists, was a nationally recognized, visionary arts leader. The following students have exemplified the vision of Ms. Lewis in their advocacy for community development and their dedication to the cultural growth in Boston’s neighborhoods.
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