Alice Carlson Applied Learning Center kicked off its fourteenth year sponsoring its annual Park for the Arts program with the first TCU home football game this Saturday.

Park for the Arts provides parking for patrons of TCU home football games in the Alice Carlson parking lot and field, located on Cantey Street across from the university. The proceeds earned are used toward Alice Carlson’s arts program and wherever else funding is most needed.

“In 1993 our PTA was looking for ways to raise money to do things for the school,” Jeannie Robinson, principal of Alice Carlson, said. “One noted that people were parking in our lot [for TCU games,] and so he said, ‘Why don’t we charge for it?’.” Park for the Arts has been using its grounds for gameday parking ever since.

“I live here in the neighborhood and parking is nuts when its actually a game people want to see,” Mike Coffey, parent and co-chairperson of Park for the Arts, said.
The program now stands with the school’s annual auction as it’s largest fundraising effort.

Although last week’s game didn’t draw what Coffey considers to be the usual crowd, he said that every parking spot is typically sold about an hour before kick-off, earning Alice Carlson between $6,000 and $7,000 each game.

“Usually we’re having to stack cars on top of one another,” Coffey said.

Recently, the money earned from Park for the Arts has gone toward the student-designed and executed murals in Alice Carlson’s new art courtyard, hiring consultants to host weekly “enrichment clusters,” new purple cafeteria chairs and even an entire faculty position, Robinson said.

“Because of Fort Worth ISD budget cuts we lost a campus monitor. We used the money from Park for the Arts to keep that [person] employed here as an assistant,” Robinson said.

Single game parking at Alice Carlson is $20 per spot, and an extra $20 for trailers. The spots are first-come-first-serve and sell-out quickly. However, as of last year, season spots are also sold, which are held until 30 minutes after kick-off for those who reserve them. Those who wish to buy a season spot must pay the $120 fee to reserve it for all six home games, in addition to donating a minimum of $120 to Alice Carlson’s PTA. As of now, spots are still available.

The money gained from Park for the Arts provides her students at Alice Carlson extra opportunities, Robinson said.

“We love TCU fans because they’re not only supporting the winning Horned Frogs, but they’re helping us do things for our students that we wouldn’t ordinarily be able to do,” Robinson said.

For more information regarding Park for the Arts, contact Mike Coffey at [email protected]