The Creative Cycle helped bring watercolor painting into the lives of 24 students in Ms.Perret's classroom at the Future Leaders Institute Charter School, a high poverty elementary school in Harlem. Ms. Perret wrote a touching letter thanking all of you who helped!

"Dear The Creative Cycle,

Thank you so much for contributing to this project! Integrating the arts into our core subjects is something that I have been working hard to do with my students. As the daughter of two artists, I grew up surrounded with paints, brushes and clay. By the time I was my students' age, I made dolls from recycled materials (yogurt cans, corks, etc) and drew daily. Few of my students have access to what I had as a child and any exposure to art is limited to field trips and what we do in school. I strongly believe my students need access not only to new technology, wonderful literature and a rigorous math curriculum, but they also need access to a plethora of art materials so they can learn to manipulate them and express themselves visually. I've bought and sent home crayons for many of my students who didn't have any and I'm hoping that with the materials from this project I can teach them to create using materials found at a dollar store. While my primary goal is to infuse art into our academic lives, my ultimate goal is for my students to transfer these skills to enrich their home lives. I'm thrilled that so many of you believe in putting the arts back into the classroom!

With gratitude,
Ms. P"