



We care, our goal is to help underprivileged talented children realize their Artistic Dreams.

“Music education opens doors that help children pass from school into the world around them – a world of work, culture, intellectual activity, and human involvement.
The future of our nation dependson providing our children with a complete education that includes music.”
– Gerald Ford,
Former President of the United States
“Students who have an arts rich experiences in school do better across-the-board academically, and they
also become more active
and engaged citizens, voting, volunteering, and generally participating at higher rates than their peers"
This put fourth by
Rocco Landesman, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts
Our mission concerning underserved children
One of the important lessons we’ve learned is that all successful youth arts programs do three things: first, they provide positive adult role models; second, they give youth the opportunity for achievement and, ultimately, recognition for this achievement; and, third, they enable youth to interact with people who have healthy beliefs and consistent standards for behavior. Programs designed to achieve these outcomes are best able to provide the opportunity that youth need to develop positive behaviors.
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Borrowed from the Americans for the Arts website
Meet Red Tie Arts First Recipient for
Red Tie Kits Grant
Japneet Singh


Japneet was brought to our attention by his Sylvan School District music teacher, Michelle Askeland. Michelle said that she thinks Japneet has above average ability to become an outstanding percussionist in all facets of percussion. Red Tie Arts is providing, for starters, a series of summer sessions with David Hawkes, who I believe is one of the greatest drummers and instructors in this area. A great oppportunity for young Japneet, who by the way is Eleven.
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Japneet and Michelle,
his in-school music teacher​
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Japneet was Student Zero,
our beginning
Our goals are grand and lofty when it comes to what we would like to do for these underserved but talented kids. We would like to help every child that needs the help to further his/her artistic dreams. However, we have to start small.
In the final version of the RTA Granting Program, we hope to one day be able to fund all forms of artistic endeavors, and as our funding grows, so will our reach.
Since part of what we do to raise funds is produce a summer concert series, we have decided to, in the beginning, focus on music students and, in the beginning, focus on the Sylvan School District, who, by the way, is helping us set up how all the granting and support will work. Since this was first written, we have added Modesto City Schools, Stanislaus County Schools, Ripon Unified Schools, Hickman Charter School, Opera Modesto, and Great Valley Academy to our list of approved schools.
RTA’s Officers and Board Members, are committed to this cause and is actually part of the criteria for being admitted to become involved with RTA.
Red Tie Arts has basically two parts or purposes:
One part is responsible for creating and producing events while the other part is to help our underserved children and their Artistic Dreams, the first part fueling the second...along with your help, of course.
Our mission (extended version)
Red Tie Arts (RTA) A 501(c)(3) CA Corp. has a twofold purpose:
1. Produce and Present quality arts and entertainment events to enhance the quality of life in our area.
2, To help underprivileged talented children realize their “Artistic Dreams” through financial gifts and grants and to enhance the lives of these children.
How your donation(s) will help
Your donation will help us reach our goal of financially helping at least 60 children in the 2018-2019 school year. Your donation will help RTA in two ways:
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1. All donations can be specified either to go straight to the Red Tie Kids account. This is money that never sees the general operating fund.
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2. Unspecified donations go into the general fund to help pay for the artists, promotion and production costs. All profits from our activities end up in the Red Tie Kids fund anyway.
Who will benefit
The children will benefit--and indirectly-- society as a whole will benefit by having more productive and responsible adults. The following quote is from the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and highlights our mission:
“Children who play the violin or study piano are learning more than just Mozart. A University of Vermont College of Medicine child psychiatry team has found that musical training might also help kids focus their attention, control their emotions and diminish their anxiety.”
This is one of many studies regarding the positive effects of children studying music.
Here we go…
Even though we, the founders, have been producing concerts for 25 years to enhance the quality of life in our area, the kids program is new.
We are bringing our expertise in music to assist funding these under served talented kids. We are began with the Sylvan School District in Modesto where we have enlisted the assistance of several of the music teachers and the District Superintendent to assist with development of criteria to identify students who may otherwise never have a chance to truly develop into accomplished artists. This became our process for identifying children who are eligible for grant funding. All student referrals come directly from their arts instructors.
The process for child selection considers:
Talent promise
Instrument devotion
Family financial situation
Desire to excel
Our organization can provide support including the following:
Instruments, either outright purchase or rental Additional lessons as the music instructors recommend
Travel expenses for performances
Eventually, our plans are to expand into other art forms such as dance, theater, visual art, and possibly even literary arts as our coffers and funding grows.
Timeline for funding students
RTA's program started in the Fall 2017. The board and officers of RTA had identified a child who showed great promise and desire to be a world class percussionist. We put him in a lesson plan that took place over the summer.
Our goal is to raise adequate funding through this “Crowd Funding, concert profits, sponsorship, and gifts to make a significant difference in children’s artistic lives as well as to enhance the arts and culture of our community.
So please, make whatever donation you can, it will appreciated more than you will ever know.
Who we are
Red Tie Arts presents national and international acts in small intimate settings. The grantees of our kids program will have free access to these offering as may be beneficial to their education. On occasion, we might be able to arrange for a child to “sit in” with the band. Founders Jerry Cooper and John Griswold have been working together and presenting music from the early days of the reincarnation of the historic State Theatre. (1994) Founded as a performance venue in Modesto; Jerry as the volunteer coordinator, and John as the director.
Their shared love of music, and their desire to help enhance the quality of life while expanding the music and art scene in Modesto for the past 23 years has led to the formation of Red Tie Arts with the purpose and goal of
“Exploring, Celebrating, and Supporting the Arts.”
A 501(c)(3) California Corp
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