Our mission is to empower and inspire underserved youth through free, high-quality art education. We provide foster children, kids on free or reduced lunch and other marginalized youth with creative opportunities that nurture self-expression, build confidence, and foster a lifelong appreciation for the arts. By welcoming children of all backgrounds and experiences, we create a supportive space where every young artist feels valued, seen, and encouraged to share their unique voice. Through accessible programs and mentorship, we break down barriers so that every child has the opportunity to explore their artistic potential and thrive.

Kids Place Lex, Inc. is a 501(c)3 nonprofit founded to provide free arts education to children in foster care, children adopted from foster care, children in relative (kinship) placement and children from low income households in Lexington, Fayette County. This fall marks the beginning of the organization's third year of programming. Kids Place Lex was founded by Constance Grayson, an attorney who spent over a decade representing the state in family court, where she saw firsthand the instability, trauma and lack of enrichment opportunities that often accompany a child's time in the foster care system. That direct experience shaped the organization's mission to give children whose lives have been marked by disruption a stable, joyful, creative outlet--free of cost and free of barriers to access.

The organization is governed by a 10 member board that reflects this mission directly, including a family court judge, a district court judge-elect, two attorneys, an accountant, a retired University of Kentucky art education professor, an elementary school teacher, a professional artist, a foster parent and a community representative--a structure that keeps the organization closely connected to both the child welfare system and the arts education field it serves.

Since its founding, Kids Place Lex has grown a portfolio of recurring and one-time programs including Passport to Art (now entering its third year and sixth session), Empower Art (three completed cohorts), Great Art Adventure and the upcoming Clean Water Creators. Programming culminates in two public exhibits--winter at LexArts and spring at Faith Lutheran Church. The most recent exhibit at Lex Arts included a visit from Miss Kentucky 2025, Ariana Rodriguez, herself a former foster child.

• Arts Education/Youth Arts

Kids Place Lex, Inc. requests $5,000 to support The Paint & Palette Club, a new free art program serving children in foster care, children adopted from foster care, children in kinship placement, and children from low-income households in Lexington-Fayette County.

Kids Place Lex is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded to provide free arts education to children whose lives have been shaped by instability in the child welfare system. This fall marks the beginning of the organization's third year of programming. The organization was founded by Constance Grayson, an attorney who spent over a decade representing the state in family court, where she saw firsthand the trauma and lack of enrichment opportunities that often accompany a child's time in foster care. That experience shaped Kids Place Lex's mission: to give these children a stable, joyful, creative outlet, free of cost and free of barriers to access. The organization's 10-member board includes a family court judge, a district court judge-elect, two attorneys, a CPA, a retired University of Kentucky art education professor, an elementary school teacher, a professional artist, a foster parent, and a community representative, keeping the organization closely connected to both the child welfare system and the arts education field it serves.

The Paint & Palette Club will run in two six-week cohorts of eight children each, meeting twice weekly on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Sessions will introduce children to a range of visual art media and techniques, including drawing, painting, and mixed media, taught by a qualified teaching artist in a low-ratio, emotionally supportive classroom environment tailored to children who have experienced trauma and disruption. Beyond skill-building, the program is designed to give children a consistent, predictable creative outlet, a sense of ownership over their own work, and the experience of seeing that work valued and displayed publicly, often for the first time.

The first cohort will run this fall, culminating in a public group exhibition of the children's work at LexArts in November 2026. The second cohort will run in February and March 2027, culminating in a second public group exhibition at Faith Lutheran Church in May 2027. Hosting the second exhibition at a community church venue, rather than a traditional gallery space, is an intentional choice: it extends the reach of the children's work into a different community setting and audience, reinforcing the program's message that these children's creativity belongs not only in arts institutions but throughout the fabric of the community. Each exhibition will be planned and executed as a genuine public event, with the children's artwork professionally displayed, labeled, and celebrated in the presence of family members, caregivers, and community members. For many of the children served by Kids Place Lex, this will be their first experience of seeing their own creative work honored in a public setting, an experience with meaningful impact on self-esteem, identity, and a sense of belonging.

This program directly advances LexArts' focus areas of Youth Arts Engagement and Community Arts by expanding access to high-quality arts programming for a population of children who otherwise have little to no access to arts education, and by creating public points of connection between these children and the broader Lexington community. The $5,000 requested will support teaching artist stipends, art supplies and materials for sixteen children across both cohorts, and exhibition costs including printing, framing or display materials and reception expenses.

The Paint & Palette Club delivers benefit to the Lexington-Fayette community on several interconnected levels: to the children directly served, to their families and caregivers, and to the broader public.

For the children themselves, the benefit begins with access. Children in foster care, kinship placement, or low-income households face significant barriers to enrichment programming: financial cost, transportation, instability in caregiving arrangements, and the simple fact that arts education is rarely prioritized when a family or system is focused on crisis stabilization. By removing cost as a barrier entirely, The Paint & Palette Club reaches children who would otherwise have no access to structured arts instruction. Research on children who have experienced trauma and disruption consistently shows that creative expression supports emotional regulation, self-esteem, and a sense of personal agency, qualities that are often eroded by instability in the foster care system. A consistent, twice-weekly creative outlet, led by a caring adult in a low-ratio setting, offers these children something many have rarely experienced: predictability, individual attention, and a space where their voice and choices matter.

The culminating public exhibitions extend this benefit outward. For many of these children, seeing their own artwork professionally displayed and celebrated will be a first-time experience of public recognition and pride, rather than public scrutiny tied to their circumstances. This shift, from being defined by crisis to being celebrated for creativity, has lasting value for identity and self-worth. Family members, foster and kinship caregivers, and community members who attend these exhibitions also benefit: they gain a rare, positive, strengths-based encounter with foster care-connected children and families, one that stands in contrast to the deficit-focused narratives that too often surround the child welfare system.

By locating the second exhibition at Faith Lutheran Church rather than a traditional gallery, the program also benefits the broader community in a different way. It brings original, high-quality youth artwork into an everyday community space, exposing a congregation and neighborhood audience who might not otherwise attend an arts venue to the creative capacity of local children in foster care. This builds public awareness and empathy for a population that is frequently discussed in the abstract but rarely seen, met, or celebrated directly. In doing so, the program advances Lexington's broader civic goal of an arts landscape that is genuinely accessible and reflective of the full community, not concentrated solely among those who already have means and access.

Finally, the program benefits Kids Place Lex's community partners and the local child welfare ecosystem as a whole in that it contributes to the conversation about the ways in which Lexington supports its most vulnerable young.

Kids Place Lex promotes its programs through direct partnerships with the family court system, foster and kinship care agencies, and caseworkers who refer eligible children directly to our programs, ensuring the families who most need free arts access learn about it. We maintain an email newsletter and active social media presence to reach caregivers, donors, and the broader arts community, and cross-promote through our affiliated organization, Gallery 645, extending our reach into Lexington's established arts audience. For The Paint & Palette Club specifically, we will promote the culminating exhibitions through LexArts' own communications channels and calendar, and through Faith Lutheran Church's congregation and community networks for the spring show, reaching an audience that may not otherwise engage with youth arts programming. Press releases and personal outreach to local media will highlight both exhibitions as public, family-friendly community events open to all.

The Paint & Palette Club's primary target audience is children ages 6–14 in foster care, adopted from foster care, or in kinship (relative) placement, as well as children from low-income households in Lexington-Fayette County. These children are identified and referred through Kids Place Lex's existing relationships with the family court system, foster and kinship care agencies, and caseworkers, ensuring the program reaches families who would not otherwise have access to arts programming. Sixteen children total will participate directly, in two cohorts of eight. A secondary audience is the families, foster and kinship caregivers, and community members who will attend the two culminating public exhibitions, gaining a positive, strengths-based encounter with these children's creativity. The exhibitions themselves are open to the general public, extending the program's reach to LexArts' existing arts audience and, at the Faith Lutheran Church show, to a broader neighborhood.

The Paint & Palette Club will engage diverse artists and serve a diverse population of children. Three members of our teaching staff are Latino, bringing varied cultural perspectives and lived experience to the classroom. Kids Place Lex's historic student demographics reflect the diversity of Lexington's foster care and low-income population: approximately 50% Black or bi-racial, 30% white, 10% Latino, and 10% other backgrounds. We are intentional about ensuring instruction, curriculum, and classroom culture are welcoming and affirming for children of all racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, and we prioritize hiring teaching artists who reflect the diversity of the children we serve. Referral partnerships with the family court system and foster and kinship care agencies, rather than program fees or self-selection, ensure equitable access regardless of race, income, or family circumstance, removing the barriers that most often limit arts participation for underrepresented children.

The Paint & Palette Club is built on a foundation of established partnerships spanning the arts sector, the child welfare system, and the faith community. LexArts itself is a central partner for this project, both as host venue for the fall exhibition and as a convener whose calendar and communications channels will help promote both exhibitions to the broader Lexington arts audience. Faith Lutheran Church will serve as host venue and community partner for the spring exhibition, opening the program's reach to a congregation and neighborhood audience that may not otherwise engage with youth arts programming, and reflecting our commitment to presenting children's creative work throughout the fabric of the community, not solely within traditional gallery walls.

Kids Place Lex maintains deep, ongoing partnerships with the Fayette County family court system and local foster and kinship care agencies, which serve as our primary referral pipeline for identifying and enrolling eligible children. This relationship is structural rather than incidental: our 10-member board includes a sitting family court judge and a district court judge-elect, alongside two attorneys, ensuring the organization remains closely connected to the professionals and systems that serve these children daily, and that referrals reach families who most need free arts access. Our board also includes a retired University of Kentucky art education professor, an elementary school teacher, and a professional artist, who provide direct guidance on curriculum design and instructional quality for programs like The Paint & Palette Club. A current foster parent and community representative on the board further ensure the program's design remains grounded in the lived realities of the families we serve.

Kids Place Lex is also affiliated with Gallery 645, a contemporary art gallery in Lexington operating under a mission of "Contemporary Art with Purpose," whose commission proceeds support Kids Place Lex programming. This relationship gives our youth programs a connection to Lexington's professional arts community and additional promotional reach a connection to Lexington's professional arts community and additional promotional reach among established gallery and collector audiences.

The Paint & Palette Club has four core goals. First, to provide free, high-quality visual arts instruction to sixteen children in foster care, kinship placement, or low-income households across two six-week cohorts, removing cost and access barriers to arts education. Second, to give these children a stable, predictable, emotionally supportive creative outlet, consistent with Kids Place Lex's founding mission of offering enrichment to children whose lives have been shaped by disruption in the child welfare system. Third, to give each child the experience of having their creative work publicly exhibited and celebrated, first at LexArts and later at Faith Lutheran Church, building self-esteem and a positive sense of identity. Fourth, to strengthen public awareness and connection between the Lexington community and the children served by the foster care system, through genuine, strengths-based public exhibitions in both an arts venue a community setting.

Kids Place Lex will evaluate The Paint & Palette Club's success through a combination of participation tracking, direct observation, qualitative feedback, and exhibition outcomes. Attendance and retention will be tracked for each of the sixteen participating children across both six-week cohorts, with a target retention rate of at least 80% of enrolled children completing the full session. This measures the program's ability to sustain engagement among a population that often experiences instability in other areas of life.

The teaching artist will conduct informal observational assessments throughout each cohort, noting each child's growth in specific technical skills, willingness to try new media, and confidence in sharing or discussing their own work. These observations will be documented in brief session notes to track individual progress over the six weeks. At the close of each cohort, caregivers and, where age-appropriate, the children themselves will be asked to complete a brief feedback survey addressing their experience of the program, their child's engagement and enthusiasm, and any observed changes in confidence or self-expression. This qualitative feedback will be used both to measure impact and to inform improvements to future sessions.

Finally, the culminating public exhibitions will serve as a concrete outcome measure: the percentage of enrolled children who have a completed piece of work included in the exhibition, and attendance figures at each show, will be tracked as indicators of program completion and public reach. Kids Place Lex's board, which includes an art education professional and an elementary school teacher, will review evaluation data at the close of each cohort to assess program quality and inform planning for future sessions.

• KidsPlaceLex.-Key-Personnel.pdf
• GraysonCV-v5.pdf