In 2004, 402 hopeful applicants sought cash from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities for various projects. Sometimes they got what they wanted.

Name: William Lloyd Garrison Elementary School

Grant Applied For: Teacher Mini-Grant—funds “to encourage creative arts education projects” in the District’s public and private schools.

Money Needed For: labyrinth artist Sandra Wasko-Flood’s residency at Garrison Elementary

Project Title: “Labyrinths for Creativity and Peace”

Plan: Wasko-Flood was to teach selected fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-graders important life lessons through the ancient art of labyrinth-making. Students will “[l]earn principles of repetition and variation in design,” reads the application. “For example, ‘If you make a mistake, repeat it and you have a design pattern.’”

Amount Asked For: $1,500

Status: approved

Upshot: Wasko-Flood’s month-long residence yielded a “traffic marker paint” labyrinth on Garrison Elementary’s playground—an addition that Garrison teacher Njambi Wynn terms “excellent.” But it appears the project may not have met at least one of its goals. “I don’t know that we had any mistakes,” she says.

—Mike Kanin