The Foundation for Portland Public Schools (FPPS) is thrilled to announce their new program, the PPS Arts Partnership. The PPS Arts Partnership was designed to support and enhance the curriculum by bringing visiting artists into classrooms over multiple sessions. The program was piloted in seven PPS schools in the 2025-26 school year. This year it will include 16 schools in the district and nine arts groups in the Portland area.

"We’re so excited to be expanding music and arts opportunities for students," said Andi Weisman Summers, Executive Director of FPPS. "This will allow all of Portland's high schools and middle schools, plus seven elementary schools, to work with partners to provide additional learning experiences in the arts that are integrated into the curriculum."

This year's partners include the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine, Indigo Arts Alliance, the Maine Academy of Modern Music, Opera Maine, Portland Ovations, Portland Symphony Orchestra, Side x Side, STAGES Youth Theater, and The Telling Room.

"We’ve heard from students, families, and teachers that they’d love for our schools to be able to provide even greater arts experiences," Summers said. "The PPS Arts Partnership was designed to tap into the abundance  of artists, musicians and arts organizations that exist in our community and to provide a bit of funding for those groups at the same time we expand opportunities for kids."

A local couple donated $50,000 to pilot the program, which occurred in seven schools during the 2025-2026 school year. Their support led an anonymous family of PPS alumni to donate $1 million to FPPS last year, earmarking half of it for music and the arts programming. Those funds allowed the foundation to expand the PPS Arts Partnership districtwide this school year.

The Foundation for Portland Public Schools is a nonprofit organization with a mission to be a catalyst for increased educational opportunities, achievement, and equity for all Portland Public Schools students and staff. Learn more about us at www.foundationforpps.org.

The Portland Public Schools is Maine’s largest school district, with approximately 6,500 students, and it’s also the most diverse. About one-third of the district’s students come from homes where languages other than English are spoken—a total of 59 languages. Approximately 47 percent of the district’s students are white and 53 percent are students of color. Over half of PPS students qualify for free or reduced-price school meals.