About AHAA

Ashland High Arts Advocates (AHAA) originally began as an arts booster club in 1991 at Ashland High School, in Ashland, Oregon. Today, AHAA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Mission

AHAA's mission is to support and build equity in K-12 arts education throughout a one hundred square mile rural region in Southern Oregon, centered around Ashland.

How We Do It

Through partnerships with personal, corporate, and institutional donors, as well as its annual Winter Fine Arts Festival, AHAA raises funds to support extracurricular and enriched arts programs, teachers, and students in public schools and the greater community. AHAA was created due to the immense need to make the arts accessible and equitable for K-12 students, especially those who are low-income, have specific needs, or are members of underserved populations. The organization creates, administers, and funds a wide variety of programs including the extracurricular SAM (Student Arts Mentorship) Project, special classroom projects for teachers, artists in residence, arts clubs, summer camps, art exhibitions and performing art showcases, support for low-income students in arts competitions, and more.

AHAA leverages the immense artistic talent in Southern Oregon through its Board of Directors, who hold monthly, virtual meetings open to the public. Our Executive Director is Paige Gerhard, who can be reached at Paige.Gerhard@AshlandArts.org.

For more information about volunteer opportunities, big and small, please contact AHAA as soon as possible!