Ticket to Ride Funding Available

Just in time

We’ve just learned that funding is once again available for the Maine Arts Commission Ticket to Ride program. If you are unfamiliar with the program below is the information.

The Ticket to Ride program began in 2010 with start up funding provided by the Jane B. Cook 1992 Charitable Trust and matched by the Maine Arts Commission. In 2011, the agency received support from the Betterment Fund that will allow the program to continue for an additional three years.

The program 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 PK-12 school in Maine is eligible to receive support of up to $300 each school year and any PK-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.

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. This decline has been directly linked to the increase in cost of transportation and has impacted both Maine students as well as the venues and organizations that rely on the sale of student tickets to fuel the creative economy and to provide out of school arts education.

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 submission of follow-up documentation that includes teacher feedback and student work samples of the experience. 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.

For program guidelines and access the application please CLICK HERE.