NOTE FROM HENRY MORAN, DANA GIOIA, BRUCE M. COLE, ROBERT S. MARTIN

Flutist from the Berklee City Music Program, Berklee College of Music, a 2003 Coming Up Taller nominee, performs.

Photo: Bob Kramer

Anyone who has seen the glow on a child's face at the end of a performance, or witnessed a student's wide-eyed discovery of a piece of community history, or sensed the determination of young people to finish a Website design or a painting knows the power of the arts and humanities to engage youth.

Today, more than ever, young people are pursuing opportunities to discover and hone new skills when they are not in school or at home. With the assistance of library and museum professionals, scholars of history and literature, artists, and media experts, they are researching and presenting the history of city neighborhoods and communities; studying Shakespeare's plays and adapting them to reflect contemporary issues; singing and playing orchestral instruments; dancing; photographing and painting; creating programs for radio and television; and learning the arts of animation, printmaking, and bookmaking.

Through these experiences they find constructive expressions of their curiosity; develop strong, positive relationships with adult mentors; become valued members of a peer group; make informed choices; advance their knowledge of history and culture; and join their community giving back as much as they learn. As a result, these young people begin to believe in a future that offers substantial possibilities.

Coming Up Taller is a national initiative that recognizes and supports these outstanding out-of-school and after-school arts and humanities programs for young people. It is a project of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, in partnership with three national cultural agencies: the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This publication honors the excellence of the 2003 Coming Up Taller awardees. While arts and humanities learning is at the core of these hands-on programs, the context in which the disciplines are taught varies. Some programs focus on general employment training and experiences. Others provide preprofessional training or the gift of a lifelong skill in one of the arts' disciplines. Several programs engage youth in their communities. Others feature extended-day activities, coordinating with and supplementing in-school learning.

And the difference each award recipient is making in young people's lives is both tangible and measurable-improved school attendance, increased basic reading and math skills and problem-solving abilities, higher graduation and college enrollment rates, and enhanced life skills.

Carl Mastandrea, executive director of the Boston Photo Collaborative, in describing preparations for an upcoming presentation at the New England School of Photography, captures some of the ways these arts and humanities programs achieve such results:

"Today, the teens are very serious. The weight of responsibility has finally hit. No one thinks my jokes are funny. They have a little kick in their step-unusual for teens. Jeremy has spent the last hour on the phone with the local historian, getting facts to round out his project. Laura can't figure out how to fit five pages of text into one. Xavier's photos are affectionate and sweet, yet his writing is anything but. Before lunch, they all present their essays and vote on whether they are good to go. We practice the oral presentations until the vote is unanimous. This could be a long day.

I love to watch their eyes. I wait for the moment when they realize that this project is theirs. Their eyes get a little wider, more alert. There's a little desperation in their voices. By Thursday, they'll be ready. This is when they shine."

Through this year's Coming Up Taller Awards, we celebrate the promise that shines within every child in America. We salute the creative learning opportunities that the awardees offer young people. And, we applaud the vision, skill, and dedication of the artists, scholars, museum and library experts, and community leaders who direct and shape these Coming Up Taller programs.