Beck Center Receives Grant from PNC

During a week filled with blow after blow to education in Ohio, there is a glimmer of good news about education in the state, especially here in Lakewood.

was awarded a grant earlier this week from the PNC Foundation to provide early childhood arts education programs for preschoolers enrolled in the Head Start program through West Side Ecumenical Ministry in Cleveland. The grant is set for $15,000, enough for the Beck Center to provide programs for about 130 students ages 3 and 4 for 10 weeks starting in May.

“This is like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval on our education program,” Beck Center CEO Lucinda Einhouse said. “We’re delighted to have this support from PNC. It’s a statement about the quality that PNC would want to be associated with it.”

The Beck Center has remained committed to arts educations for decades, especially for younger children. The program planned for students in the Head Start program is expected to include music, dance, theater and visual arts, which Ed Gallagher, the Beck Center director of education and creative arts therapies, said can both help expand artistic opportunities for students and provide in-service training for teachers. 

The grant is part of Grow Up Great, a 10-year, $100 million program funded by the PNC Foundation to improve early childhood education. It is the first awarded by PNC to the Beck Center.

“Arts education for young children really helps them develop life skills,” Einhouse said. “It helps them improve their readiness for school, taking turns speaking, responding to instructions and even just learning how to sit still while they’re at art education.”

News of the grant came within days of state officials cutting deep into the education budget at all levels and the state preschool program tumbling in a report released by the National Institute for Early Childhood Research at Rutgers University. Ohio had ranked fifth in spending per preschool student in the last study; it ranked 23rd in the study released this week.

Beck Center officials also announced earlier this week that they will collaborate with Lakewood Hospital’s Child Care Center for a teacher training day on June 28 that is expected to attract about 100 early childhood teachers and educators. That day is scheduled to include instruction from Lisa Gallagher, a music therapy program manager at the Cleveland Clinic, and three one-hour sessions in music, theater and visual arts.