P.A.C.E. Program (Progressive Afterschool Art Community Education)

The Norton provides innovative after-school art programs to children living in underserved communities in Palm Beach County throughout the year.

Norton P.A.C.E. provides a significant afterschool arts experience that affords a safe, consistent, and structured environment for children whose lives are often deprived of structure. P.A.C.E. instructors are dynamic, caring role models who help their students develop positive self-images through positive achievement. Art projects and Museum tours expand the students’ world views by exposing them to multicultural and arts-integrated history, music, and literature as well as to the visual arts. It is the Norton Museum of Art’s joy and responsibility as an arts institution to provide this service to the community.
The program:

• fosters creativity and stimulates critical thinking skills for youth in a safe, supportive afterschool environment;
• provides a fine arts-based curriculum with art historical enrichment using high quality materials;
• offers P.A.C.E. students three visits to the Norton Museum of Art each year for tours related to their own art projects;
• provides all P.A.C.E. children with opportunities to participate in an annual exhibition in the Marden Community Gallery at the Norton Museum of Art; 
• employs teachers and artists from within P.A.C.E. communities, thereby providing community role models for children in the program.

P.AC.E. succeeds in reaching children through partnerships with organizations that host the program, including: the Police Athletic League and the West Palm Beach Housing Authority; Gaines Park, West Palm Beach Parks and Recreation program; the Highridge Family Center; My Choice Community Development in Riviera Beach; and the P.A.C.E .Center for Girls. The program has been recognized as a finalist for the President’s Coming Up Taller Award. 

This program is generously underwritten in part by the Robert Lee and Thomas M. Chastain Charitable Foundation, Palm Beach Community Trust, Marmot Foundation, Lesser, Lesser, Landy & Smith PLLC Attorneys at Law and JPMorgan Chase Foundation.