The Metropolitan Arts Institute
The Metropolitan Arts Institute
"People who visit now raise their eyebrows and say, ‘You're a charter school. How did this happen?' The answer is Argosy."
Matt Baker says that he co-founded the Metropolitan Arts Institute in Phoenix, Arizona to address something that's been lost.
“When spending cuts need to be made by public schools, everyone cuts arts first, despite research that shows kids perform better academically with a strong arts education,” he says.
Since its inception in 1998, Metro Arts has charted new territory as a tuition-free, college preparatory high school grounded in the creative process – and the Argosy Foundation has helped it pave the way. A $150,000 challenge grant in 2005 allowed Metro Arts to cover the short-term loan for a vital new facility that has profoundly impacted the school's reach.
Matt, now Metro Arts' co-executive director, says, “The grant was the best thing that ever happened to us.”
The result of creativity
Metro Arts' visual, performing and literary arts programs – plus a broad academic curriculum – encourage students from all walks of life to establish connections across disciplines and encourage freedom of purposeful expression. Matt Baker explains, “When you teach the arts, you watch the creative process unfold along with the intellect. Creativity leads to the examination and discussion of issues. The result of creativity is insight.”
Unique in a variety of ways, Metro Arts employs an exceedingly creative staff – from top administrators all the way down, notes Matt – all of whom thrive outside of school as professional artists, writers and dancers. “The result for kids is remarkable. They learn to think in ways other than the traditional linear method. They also are able to apprentice with professionals before they enter college or begin working.”
A school-saving enterprise
In the past, Argosy Foundation had supported music programs at Metro Arts – until a more pressing need presented itself.
Simply put, the school faced a future in flux. Its rented facility, already bursting at the seams with a growing student body, was threatened to be torn down. Metro Arts needed to own its own space, and it needed to know its long-term future.
Argosy supported this critical need through a $300,000 grant in 2003, which enabled the school to purchase a new building. In 2005, Argosy continued its partnership through a $150,000 challenge grant to help pay the short-term loan on the facility.
The result? “It was a school-saving enterprise,” emphasizes Matt Baker.
Argosy's support of Metro Arts has guaranteed a stable future for the school while allowing it to open its doors to an increasing number of students. (In its first year, Metro Arts' student body consisted of 50 youth. Since then, this figure has grown by roughly 20% each year, reaching a current total of 215.)
Moreover, Argosy has helped Metro Arts stay pointed towards its mission of integrating students with the larger arts community. The new facility has created venues for the school and the public to experience both student and professional performances. These venues include a professional theater space for concerts and plays, a dance studio, and a gallery space.
In the future, Metro Arts plans to open a recording studio, radio station, film studio and student run music café – all in the effort to provide students with hands-on experience so they can learn how to survive and flourish as performers and artists in the real world.
No longer the little guy
Matt Baker stresses that Argosy's support has made huge waves for Metro Arts. “Our school has always been a ‘little guy.' People who visit now raise their eyebrows and say, ‘You're a charter school. How did this happen?' The answer is Argosy. Once we partnered with Argosy, everything else fell into place – the bank loans, the insurance, the funding.”
Matt calls Argosy's challenge grant a huge tool that enabled it to leverage $250,000 in matching funds, far exceeding its goal for the challenge grant. “We've had a series of financial miracles at Metro. This was the big one that started it all.”
Thanks to the rousing success of Argosy's partnership, Matt is now able to “polish the jewel of Metro Arts.” And yet, he wants to share the school's success with people in other parts of the country. “You have to have a long-term view. Secondary arts in America needs a larger, more public vision than the customary elite private art school which is the current norm.”
Specifically, Matt hopes to provide an example to other charter schools of what it means to be creative and transformative in education so that students and administrators can at once embrace high standards and a high degree of authenticity.
“After all,” he says, “when you live a life of excellence, one that you really love, you make a bigger contribution to the world.”