The Musical Chairs Project
An Arts and Music Benefit for Alachua County Schools
Additional Images
Photo by Albert Isaac
From left to right: Cheryl Poe, Eleanor Blair and Susan Johnson discuss the upcoming "Musical Chairs Project" event in Blair's art studio.
Three years ago, when retired arts teachers Susan Johnson and Cheryl Poe heard that the elementary arts program funding in Alachua County was being cut by 50 percent, they decided to do something about it.
They began by attending a meeting held by school officials at the Kanapaha Middle School. Sandra Clifton -- a teacher at Glen Springs Elementary School -- asked officials what it would take to bring back the programs.
The answer: $750,000.
"Sandra Clifton did the math," said Susan Johnson in a recent interview. "If 6,000 people in Alachua County each wrote a check for $125, then that will enable the programs to come back for the next year at full power."
Johnson said she began to think about it in terms she described as a circle of friends and the power of one.
"Because if you told your friends, then it was coming from a reliable source," Johnson said. "And that one person has a lot of power if you can combine a lot of ones."
Things happened quickly. As a result of this concept, Johnson and Poe raised $90,000 in about three weeks.
"We were getting people to pull up in the driveway to drop off a check," Johnson said.
"It was almost unbelievable," Poe said. "We were delighted, yet we knew we didn't reach the goal."
"Bringing the programs back to full status wasn't going to happen," Johnson admitted. "But what I think did happen is, it raised the awareness."
These women attribute their fast fund-raising to the fact that this was not a matter of one group against another. What made this work was a cohesive focus, with everybody sharing the goal.
"The school board, the citizens of Alachua County, everybody wanted something wonderful to happen for the kids," Johnson said.
"We are surprised the community supported this the way they did," Poe agreed. "All of us were really shocked. Sue and I sat in the car before a meeting and said, 'How could this happen?'"
Now they needed a place to house the donations. Johnson said that Clifton went to the Alachua County Public Schools Foundation for help. There she was directed to the nonprofit Gainesville Community Foundation, which led to the formation of the Friends of Alachua County Public Schools Elementary Arts Programs in June 2008 and the Elementary Arts Programs Fund, whose mission is "to support and enhance full-time, sequential Art and Music programs for all elementary students in Alachua County."
"At our first level of doing this, we were drumming up support to save the arts," Johnson said. "We couldn't get the teachers' programs fulltime that year, but we did have enough money to be able to know we could help them in some fashion at some point."
The following year, the advisory board made the decision to award each of the 25 elementary schools $1,000 to the art program and $1,000 to the music program, Johnson said.
"So that amounted to $50,000. And it was given directly to the school, to the art and music programs," she said. "And the teachers, with the help of the supervisor, developed guidelines of how that money would be used."
The next phase is to raise $100,000 to develop an endowment to support and enhance those programs. To that end, the group is planning their first major fundraiser, The Musical Chairs Project, on May 22 at Eleanor Blair's studio. Katie Levy, a recent graduate of the UF Graphic Design Program, had learned that the university was discarding some chairs. A couple of months ago, she met with Johnson and Poe at a local coffee shop and started talking about the chairs. Thus, the Musical Chairs Project came to be.
"It was Katie's idea," Johnson said.
"She's a very creative young woman," Poe said. "Both in the artistic sense and the ecological sense."
"And she went through public school system here in Alachua County," Johnson added.
During their meeting, the women brainstormed and came up with a plan to repurpose the chairs, have local artists paint them and hold a silent auction fundraiser.
Levy had already given away some of the chairs and others had been thrown out. Johnson retrieved five frames and pieces of chairs from a trash pile.
"My husband is a wood-worker, and he glued all the chair parts back together," Johnson said. "He guided me to get the right kind of stuff to take the rust off these chairs, and the right kind of steel wool."
One chair went to Blair's studio to be painted and the other has yet to be distributed, Johnson said.
"One of Katie's sculpture friends took two chairs and created a love seat, so I understand," Johnson said.
The women plan to have 10 to 12 chairs up for silent auction for the Musical Chairs Project; chairs hand-painted by local artists, including Carol Barber, Satchel and Eleanor Blair.
Following this event will be live local bands at Boca Fiesta inside the Sun Center with a sliding entrance fee. All proceeds go to benefit the Friends of Alachua County Public Schools Elementary Arts Programs Fund.
"Come enjoy the art, enjoy the interaction and enjoy the silent auction," Johnson said. "Buy a chair. It goes for a good cause and you have something wonderful to sit on to remember a good time." §
If you go
Musical Chairs Project
Sat. May 22
6:00 p.m.
Bidding will close at 9 p.m.
Eleanor Blair Studio
113 South Main
Gainesville
Live Music Benefit
Boca Fiesta
Sun Center
Sliding scale to hear the bands
