March 7, 2002 | Read Time: 2 minutes
A brush with breast cancer prompted Lisa Fitzhugh, 34, to leave a career in politics and start Arts Corps, a two-year-old organization that operates after-school arts programs in Seattle.
While Ms. Fitzhugh was undergoing chemotherapy and radiation in 1999, she knew those treatments might mean she couldn’t have kids. Starting Arts Corps was a way to maintain a connection to young people even if she could not have a family of her own.
Ms. Fitzhugh learned about the unmet need for high-quality arts programs in the city when she worked as an adviser on environmental and energy issues to former Seattle Mayor Paul Schell and as an aide to a city council member. She knew that the Seattle public schools had limited arts offerings, and that although the city had approved $36-million to help build or renovate community centers, it had not focused on increasing the programs they offered.
Today, Arts Corps serves more than 600 children annually, from kindergarten through high school, offering 26 classes in 16 locations such as local Boys & Girls Clubs and YMCAs. Classes are offered on a wide range of topics such as African drumming, digital photography, hip-hop dance, music, and songwriting.
Arts Corps has an annual operating budget of $275,000, and three part-time employees in addition to Ms. Fitzhugh, the group’s full-time executive director. It also employs about 20 teaching artists at a time, and it receives help from 40 volunteers. Ms. Fitzhugh has raised most of the money to support the organization from local corporations and foundations. The Seattle rock group Pearl Jam also pitched in $25,000.
And Ms. Fitzhugh has reached an important personal milestone: In December she gave birth to a son. That has made her even more conscious of why she started Arts Corps. “I think it is really important that children be able to express their own truths,” she says. “Too often in society they don’t have opportunities to express themselves because they are trying to make their parents or teachers happy. Having a child has made me realize even more how important it is that every child have that opportunity.”
