DALLAS, TX.- The Wallace Foundation, a New York-based independent national foundation, has approved a three-year, $8 million grant to help establish the Dallas Arts Learning Initiative (DALI). DALI is a groundbreaking partnership between the City of Dallas, Dallas Independent School District, and local cultural organizations and will be managed by Big Thought. The award is believed to be the largest arts-education grant in Texas history.

The grant will help DALI connect and coordinate the efforts of Dallas' schools, libraries, cultural institutions, community-based organizations and others to provide access to high-quality arts learning. The Wallace Foundation will also develop lessons from DALI's work intended to help other cities make the arts a central part of the learning and development of all children.

"This is a huge win," said Dallas Independent School District general superintendent Michael Hinojosa. "Dallas ISD is very appreciative of The Wallace Foundation for this contribution, and for supporting our efforts to offer students quality arts education programs."

DALI is designed to coordinate and leverage high-quality arts learning experiences for Dallas children and families. The three main goals of the programs are to:

* Increase the amount and quality of arts education in Dallas ISD
elementary schools
* Work with the City of Dallas to create networks that coordinate arts
programming for children and families at the neighborhood level
* Work with Dallas cultural providers to more deeply position the arts as
a tool in the teaching of science, math, social studies and language
arts as well as bolstering fine arts education

"Ultimately the people of Dallas are the biggest beneficiaries," Dallas city manager Mary Suhm said. "With this grant, each organization will be better able to plan and target arts education programs to reach the spectrum of Dallas, no matter where they are being served."

"Parents, policymakers, business and school leaders tell us they want the arts to be part of every child's education -- but that achieving the goal is difficult given the multiple players and priorities," said The Wallace Foundation President, M. Christine DeVita. "Dallas has made remarkable progress in aligning the city's cultural assets, financial resources, policies and practices to achieve this goal. We are delighted to help catalyze and expand this effort and expect it to yield useful lessons for other cities."

The Wallace Foundation grant supplements and leverages existing community investments in arts learning. Additional funding will be needed to fully implement and sustain the project. These funds will come from public and private sources. As the program's managing partner, Big Thought will take the lead in raising these funds on behalf of DALI.

Last January, The Wallace Foundation extended a $1 million grant to help plan DALI. More than 500 parents, educators, politicians and art advocates met to discuss what levels of arts education were currently available to the city's children and what steps might be taken to improve access to high quality arts education.

On Jan. 18, 2007 a public briefing will be held to formally announce the DALI roll-out plan and to announce the first Dallas neighborhoods that will be affected.