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Fostering Belonging at School through the Arts
A new school focused on providing education intertwined with arts programming for grades 6-12 may be in the works at the site of the now-vacant Humes Preparatory Academy Middle School—the school that famously claims Elvis Presley as one of its former students. According to reporting from The Daily Memphian, New Ballet Ensemble % School has offered $257,000 to secure the building, which is well below the $1.4 million valuation. Meanwhile, MLGW has submitted a $1.4 million offer with the intent of turning the building into a new substation. The school district has yet to decide what to do with the building.
While we wait for more news about the future of the Humes building and whether New Ballet will succeed in opening the Memphis Middle and High School for the Arts and Technology (MEMArts), we thought we would provide you with a brief overview of the importance of arts education. What does it look like? How does it help students? How can we invest in more robust arts programming for children in our community?
Why Art in Education?
When we talk about arts programming in education, it’s important to name the obvious problem: When underfunded schools filled with underserved students need to make cuts, the first thing to go is usually arts programming. Sure, this makes some sense. You wouldn’t cut English, science, math, or history, which are subjects required by law. But consider the potential benefits that these students will miss out on now that they don’t have access to enriching programs outside of traditional subjects. Increased civic engagement, greater social tolerance, and other social and emotional learning skills are just a few benefits of arts education. You can read much more about it in the Arts & Culture segment of the More For Memphis plan.
Communities across America struggle with providing these essential opportunities for their young people. Examples like Arts Connect Houston and Memphis Music Initiative show what’s possible through intentional collective action and systems building.
What New Ballet is proposing at Humes is something we have personally seen pay dividends for our communities in recent years. New Ballet is one of our partners in delivering services for children in six full-service community schools in North Memphis and Millington. For those not familiar with the concept, a full-service community school is one that centers and serves the whole community in which a school is located, providing services like food, housing and employment assistance, and health clinics in addition to the education of children enrolled. The idea is that a child will be more likely to excel if all of their needs and the needs of their families are met.
This includes the needs being met by New Ballet, who provide arts enrichment for students in these schools who would otherwise not have access to it. Data from this partnership shows a significant increase in students who feel a sense of belonging in school since the program’s inception. And this is a partnership that costs the schools and MSCS absolutely nothing! It is fully funded by a federal grant administered by Seeding Success, Communities in Schools of Memphis, and the Shelby County Community Schools Partnership. What New Ballet is proposing expands this concept into a fully-immersive performing arts environment: an innovative learning model that blends education with the arts, adds no cost to the district’s budget, and provides tremendous benefits to the children of our community.
A Fitting Use
Memphis has made incredible contributions to the world of arts and culture—too many to name. It’s the birthplace of Rock and Roll and the starting ground for artists like Aretha Franklin, Three 6 Mafia, Young Dolph, and Isaac Hayes, not to mention Jazz greats Mulgrew Miller and James Williams. Memphis has had a profoundly influential impact on multiple genres of music.
Memphis natives Morgan Freeman and Kathy Bates are among the most critically acclaimed actors in the industry. Memphis-born artist Derek Fordjour is leaving his indelible mark on the contemporary art scene. There’s Lowell Smith, who became the star of Dance Theater of Harlem in the 1980s, and Memphis Jookin’ has become a global phenomenon. There appears to be a well of talent across all art forms, just waiting to be nurtured.
It is disappointing, then, that nearly half of middle and high school students in Memphis receive no arts education in schools. Understandably, budget constraints and teacher shortages play a significant role in this reality. We have seen, however, what intentional partnerships with organizations like New Ballet can do to fulfill the needs of the whole child and change the trajectory of their educational experience. We should invest more in these types of operations so that the children of Memphis can receive the education they deserve and forge their own path to impacting the rich culture our city has created.
We believe in systemic solutions—how do we ensure every child in Memphis and Shelby County has access to a world-class music and arts education? Innovative ideas like repurposing a school that played a role in educating one of the most globally renowned musical artists in history to educate the next generation of our city’s artists would be a fitting piece to that bigger solution, and we are excited to see this plan come to fruition.
We will update you regarding New Ballet’s proposed school, MEMArts, as we learn more. In the meantime, you can read more about New Ballet’s proposal to repurpose Humes and invest $50 million into the campus in the words of their founder, Katie Smythe, here.
Article in the Seeding for Success Newsletter
August 29, 2025
Anthony Hanna
Senior Director of Policy & Advocacy
Seeding for Success
Posted by Claudia Towell at September 12, 2025