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The growing program brings expanded free arts education for rural students, as it expands to serve 20 coastal Oregon schools.
As the new school year begins, Sitka’s K-8 Create program is expanding to meet growing demand for high-quality art education in coastal
communities. In 2025–2026, the program will reach more than 5,300 students across 20 Title I public schools in Lincoln, Tillamook and Clatsop Counties. New partner schools include Taft 7–12 Middle and High School, Newport Middle and Waldport Middle and High School.
The program is part of the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology’s youth program that provides arts and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) learning experiences, widely enhancing educational opportunities for rural and underserved children and expanding access for thousands of students.
This year, through a $50,000 challenge grant from the Maybelle Clark Macdonald Fund, gifts to K-8 Create will be matched dollar for dollar, up to $2,500 per gift—for the next two years until the $50,000 goal is reached. That means giving can go twice as far to support free, high-quality arts education, multiplying the program’s impact.
Sitka Center for Art and Ecology Executive Director, Alison Dennis, is passionate about growing the program to meet increasing community need: “We’re investing in the next generation of Oregonians by bringing the arts into classrooms that have gone without for too long. Creativity should never be limited by geography. Partnering with local schools, we’re able to reach thousands of rural students who might not otherwise have access to the arts.”
In Sitka’s rural coastal community, all public schools are Title I and have limited or no arts education. Sitka created K-8 Create to fill that gap, bringing high-quality art and ecology programming to local youth. 95% of participating students come from lowincome families, qualifying for free or reduced school meals under federal guidelines.
The seventeen Title 1 schools participating in the program stretch from Astoria in the north to Waldport in the south. All nine school districts across the region participate, including Astoria, Warrenton-Hammond, Jewell, Knappa, Seaside, Neah Kah Nie, Tillamook, Nestucca Valley, and Lincoln County school districts.
About K-8 Create:
The Sitka Youth Program’s K-8 Create provides arts and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) education for Oregon Pre-K through 8th grade students, with limited or no access to art programs. By partnering directly with schools and educators to address barriers to arts education unique to rural Oregon, the Sitka Center and K-8 Create are on a mission to close arts education access gaps across the coast and state. The Sitka Center for Art and Ecology is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to expanding the relationships between art, nature and humanity. To learn more, visit www.sitkacenter.org