Jacksonville arts education nonprofit shows youth performance talents
In the first 2025 Showcase, students in Cathedral Arts Project’s performing arts program show off their dance, musical, theater and other skills.
- Cathedral Arts Project showcased student talent in performing and visual arts.
- Hundreds of students from diverse school settings participated in the showcases.
- The showcases included theater, dance, music, and visual art displays.
At the end of every school year, Jacksonville-area Cathedral Arts Project students take to the stage or to an art gallery to reveal their talents to the world.
The arts education nonprofit‘s finales are called Performing and Visual Arts Showcases and the recent 2024-25 editions spotlighted hundreds of students from public, private, charter and home school settings.
At the Jacksonville Center for the Performing Arts, 465 youth performed theater, ballet, hip hop, strings, percussion and chorus. And the visual display at Jacksonville University’s Alexander Brest Gallery featured 220 art works in a variety of media by 282 students, with most done by individuals but some collaborative pieces.
“For many of our students, Showcase is transformative,” said the Rev. Kimberly Hyatt, Cathedral Arts’ president and CEO.
The performers “step onto the stage nervous, but when it’s over, they’re exhilarated — filled with pride, lifted by applause and shaped by the experience of seeing their hard work pay off,” she said. “The same is true when students see their work installed in professional galleries. They and their families beam with pride as others stop to admire what they’ve created.”
The Performing Arts Showcase featured two shows, the first with the Cathedral Arts String Orchestra and students from Chaffee Trail Elementary, The Discovery School Global Leadership Academy–ARTS, Highlands Middle, Jacksonville Classical Academy, Mandarin Oaks Elementary, Timucuan Elementary and Venetia Elementary.
The second show had the CAP Dance Ensemble and CAP String Orchestra and students from Abess Park Elementary, Central Riverside Elementary, Crown Point Elementary, Enterprise Learning Academy, Highlands Estates Academy, Hyde Park Elementary, Kings Trail Elementary and Spring Park Elementary.
In addition, the nonprofit often stages performances for the community that “allow students the opportunity to work through their stage fright and practice their technique before their final performances,” according to Cathedral Arts.
The Visual Arts Showcase featured works by students from Abess Park Elementary, Amelia Art Studio, Arts For Justice-Involved Youth, Cornerstone Classical Academy, GRASP Academy Elementary, GRASP Academy Middle, Hope Haven, Jacksonville Classical Academy, KEYS Educational Resource Center, Kings Trail Elementary, Oak Hill Academy, Ortega Elementary, Palm Avenue Exceptional Student Center, Parkwood Heights Elementary, Radiant Collective in Nocatee, San Jose Elementary, Springfield Middle, West Riverside Elementary, Youth Crisis Center and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office John E. Goode Pre-Trial Detention Facility.
The afterschool program‘s total enrollment for 2024-25 was 4,368, a nearly 19% increase from the previous year. About 12% more students participated in the Performing Arts Showcase than took part in 2023-24 and there were 21% more works in the Visual Arts Showcase than last year.
Cathedral Arts Project was launched in 1993 by a small group from St. John’s Cathedral in Jacksonville, beginning with a 10-student dance class. The program now reaches about 36,000 youth at a variety of sites in Duval, Nassau, Clay and St. Johns counties.
For more information call (904) 281-5599 or go to capkids.org.
bcravey@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4109