After spending five years running an after-school program at Collington Square Elementary/Middle School, Julia Di Bussolo realized something was missing.

“I got to meet so many amazing students and families and community leaders and was able to weave in a lot of the arts into that program,” she says—but it didn’t feel like enough.

She appreciated the intersectionality of arts and community and wanted to see what she could do outside of what the structured school day was allowing. So, when she saw the executive director job posting for Arts Every Day, a strategic partner to the Baltimore City school district that advances equitable access to the arts, it was everything she was looking for.

“It seemed like an opportunity to really address some of the systemic challenges that I had seen students and their families face.”

Since becoming director in August 2012, Di Bussolo has grown the organizational budget to over $1.5 million and expanded the annual program reach by providing thousands of students with arts experiences like artist residencies and performances, purchasing over $100,000 in musical instruments, kilns, and arts equipment, and organizing student exhibitions.

Arts Every Day’s goal is that “every Baltimore City student has access to a transformative arts education that prepares them to be artists, leaders, advocates, makers, and supporters of the arts,” she says.

It also supports teachers who are providing art integration, provides access to arts and cultural programming across the city, and promotes Baltimore City students as artists and creatives. There is also a youth arts council that works to make sure that the “youth voice isn’t lost in the sauce when it comes to looking at systemwide issues related to arts access.” Di Bussolo took that group to Annapolis in March to meet with lawmakers and to testify before the appropriations committee.

The work is important to her not just as an art lover but a mom, too.

“My son has grown up over the course of these years and he’s a student in Baltimore City Public Schools and has been since kindergarten. So, you know, I see my role as an outside advocate, but also as a parent in the school system.”