San Diego nonprofits prove goodness comes in many forms.
RANCH & COAST MAGAZINE
DECEMBER 1, 2025
“Art is so important. It’s a joyful story; it’s all adding to lives.”
“In 2007, art was pulled from the [public school] curriculum, and we knew kids needed art, plain and simple,” says Sarah Holbach, Executive Director at ArtReach San Diego. Though a solution seemed straightforward enough – use existing connections to artists to engage children in a classroom setting to fill that need – it became evident that the role of art in kids’ lives is far greater than any one project or experience. “As we’ve grown, we’ve just seen how art and creativity play a role in a whole life of a child, and the way that you can approach things in art – it’s okay to make a mistake, you learn to try again, work through difficult things, you learn to collaborate – those skills benefit you so much outside of just art,” says Holbach.
Since its first program, a chalk “quilt” project, debuted in 2008 at Garfield Elementary, ArtReach now provides its no-cost art curriculum for K-12 students at 90 sites throughout San Diego, including schools, libraries, and community centers. A mural program was introduced in 2019, when artists were engaged to work with students to transform and beautify their spaces beyond the classroom.
ArtReach’s growth has been mostly organic. “It really is a lot of word of mouth and good reputation and joy that’s carrying us,” says Holbach. Funded by grants, school districts, individual schools, and even parent organizations, the significant demand brought to light an encouraging reality: art and artists were in demand. “One of our big goals of why we exist is not just to bring more art to children, but to show that it’s a real career path and a viable career path,” says Holbach. “So, we exist as much for the artistic community and the creative community in San Diego as well.” To this point, Holbach notes that all of ArtReach’s 11 full-time employees are practicing artists, in addition to its muralist partners and the 24 teaching artists who travel throughout the community. This belief in and support of the artistic community also drives ArtReach’s strategic vision in the coming years to grow its paid internship program, offering a pathway for artists to learn within ArtReach and eventually become part of the organization.
A drop-in studio at ArtReach headquarters in Hillcrest offers additional opportunity for creativity, serving children from early walkers to elementary school age and beyond. Here, says Holbach, “You can get messy. You can fully cover your body in temporary tattoos. You can paint on a giant canvas. And that space is always changing. There’s enough that keeps it familiar, but it’s always changing a little bit so that it’s a safe and accessible space to have your first creative experiences.” Beginning in 2026, Holbach says that ArtReach has secured funding to launch a Saturday workshop for families at its Hillcrest studio, welcoming all ages for intergenerational workshops at no cost to participants.
“Art is so important. It’s a joyful story; it’s all adding to lives,” says Holbach. “The secret sauce to ArtReach, I think, is that it’s not one-size-fits-all, even since our beginning… we’re listening first and creating a program to fit their needs.”
Read the full December issue here >>
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