Embracing Our Differences offers year-round programs that help students and educators explore kindness, respect, belonging, and different perspectives. Through art, reading, dialogue, and hands-on activities, students practice looking closely, asking questions, listening to others, and connecting what they learn to their schools and communities.
In the 2025–26 school year, EOD programs reached 49,901 students and 2,030 educators.
Programs for students
Exhibition Field Trips: Students explore the annual exhibition through in-person, live virtual, and on-demand tours. High school docents use Visual Thinking Strategies to guide student-centered conversations.
Reading Days: Our Pre-K–3 literacy programs pair books with engaging read-alouds, discussion, and activities.
Unity Days: High school students take part in interactive workshops that build communication, cooperation, empathy, and student leadership.
Coexistence Clubs: Student-led service clubs help create more welcoming school and community spaces.
Make-A-Day Of It!: Schools can extend an exhibition field trip with additional arts and cultural experiences.
Sarasota Youth Opera Matinee: Students experience live opera centered around kindness and respect through a school-day performance.
Bending the Arc: High school students experience the power and impact of the Civil Rights Movement through a series of interactive lessons, culminating in an immersive trip to historic sites like Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma, Alabama.
Programs for educators
Education Ambassadors: A year-long professional learning program that helps educators bring EOD’s values into their school communities.
Art Intensive: An annual professional learning experience for visual art educators.
Educator Workshops and Resources: Professional learning and classroom-ready lesson plans support art appreciation, critical thinking, and character development.
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