Courtesy Fillmore Arts Center.

A group of parents and community members concerned that some D.C. Public School students won’t get a chance to explore the artsy side of life have started a petition to save the Fillmore Arts Center.

Cuts proposed in the D.C. Public Schools budget for 2013-2014 would leave the center “with no hope of viability,” according to the petition started by the group Friends of Fillmore.

The Fillmore Arts Center, which has two locations at 1819 35th Street NW and 915 Spring Road NW, has served 11 D.C. public schools during the current school year. Students spend either one half-day or one whole day a week, depending on their age, learning about “dance, music, theater, visual arts, creative writing and media arts.” The center, which boasts a black box theater and kiln, also offers after-school and summer school programs.

According to the petition, budget cuts would lead Principal Katherine Latterner to convert four full-time teaching positions into part-time, hourly ones. The group says that the center’s per-pupil funding has been cut by 40 percent over the past four years.

Friends of Fillmore is asking DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson to restore $300,000 to the budget for the center, but she doesn’t seem inclined to do so.

According to the Georgetown Current, Henderson responded to a letter from the group, saying the center’s budget was cut because it will serve eight schools, instead of 11, next school year. In the petition, the group says there’s a “ban that prohibits new schools from joining the Fillmore program” they would like lifted.

The Friend of Fillmore’s petition has been signed by just over 1,000 people.

Watch Fillmore students talk about their school below.