Lynchburg education leaders and arts partners highlight student opportunity at Foundation’s ‘Inspiring Achievement Through the Arts’ breakfast

Dawn Wise, executive director of the Lynchburg City Schools Education Foundation, opened the foundation’s 19th annual Breakfast with the Superintendent on March 13 in Lynchburg, saying the event — themed “inspiring achievement through the arts” — is the foundation’s largest fundraiser and supports programs that “go above and beyond what public revenues allow.”

The breakfast brought together school leaders, teachers and arts partners to describe how private donations and community partnerships expand visual and performing arts opportunities for Lynchburg City Schools students. Wise noted the Education Foundation, established in 1985 and marking its 40th anniversary this year, is “solely donor funded and rely[s] on the donations of private individuals, corporations and grant making foundations” to pay for programs and operating costs, including salaries for three employees and a paid intern.

That donor-supported work, presenters said, funds classroom grants, student trips and residencies that reach elementary through high school students. Taylor Wiskirchen, who described herself…