Ticket to Ride

Wanna take students on a trip to an arts based venue?

Ticket to Ride is a program that provides funding to defray the cost of travel for Maine schools wishing to visit Maine arts based venues and events as part of a well rounded curriculum. Any K-12 school in Maine is eligible to receive support of up to $300 each school year and any K-12 school in Maine with a documented free and reduced lunch student population of 50 percent or greater is eligible to receive support of up to $500 each school year. Funding is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis as long as there are remaining funds. The funding is non competitive and the only criteria is need. Click here for more information and the application to apply: https://mainearts.maine.gov/Pages/Education/Ticket-To-Ride-Signup.

Ticket to Ride is the Maine Arts Commission’s response to the decline in school day student attendance at Maine arts based venues and events that has been documented across the state. This decline has been directly linked to the high cost of student transportation and has impacted both the student body of the state of Maine as well as the venues and organizations that rely on the sale of student tickets to fuel the creative economy and to provide school day learning experiences in the arts.

Ticket to Ride is designed for ease of administration; school personnel need only download and complete a two-page document to be eligible for funding. The only other requirement is the provision of a 250 word or less narrative, preferably with student input, of the experience within two weeks of the trip taking place. This final report helps the Maine Arts Commission secure funding to continue the Ticket to Ride program.

The Maine Arts Commission respectfully requests that Ticket to Ride funds not be used to replace existing transportation funds in school budgets but rather to supplement them when necessary. Schools are welcome to use Ticket to Ride funds in combination with transportation funds that may be available from individual Maine arts based venues and events.

This funding is made possible through generous donations from the Jane B. Cook 1992 Charitable Trust, the Betterment Foundation and the Maine Arts Commission.