Transforming Lives: An Overview Of Arts And Humanities Programs

PROGRAM ORIGINS

Though by no means reaching all youth in need, community programs devoted to children like Jessie are proliferating. There appear to be more cultural programs now than at any other time in our history. However, many more programs are needed to reach under-served children and youth.

This survey shows that many of the programs were started in the last half of the 1980s, but their antecedents trace their origins to the settlement house movement and community music schools. Henry Street Settlement and the Third Street Music School Settlement, both in New York City, are now over 100 years old. These organizations offered programs in the arts and culture as part of a constellation of services designed to address the needs of poor European immigrants. The same can be said of Hull House in Chicago, started in 1889 by social work pioneer Jane Addams. Hull House continues to provide community cultural activities through its Beacon Street Gallery and Theatre, which became separately incorporated in 1989.

Since the late 1960s, government agencies and private philanthropies have supported community arts and humanities programs. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the largest donor to the arts since 1976, has played a major role in decentralizing the arts to ensure broad access. Since the Endowment's creation in 1965, the network of local arts agencies has grown from 500 to 3,800. State and territorial arts councils have increased from 5 to 56. Several of the programs described in this report were created by local councils, including those in Tucson, Arizona; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Toledo and Columbus, Ohio.

In 1971, the NEA established its Expansion Arts program specifically to encourage the development of community cultural organizations. These organizations assumed that improving lives in their neighborhoods was part of their mission. Thus, helping children and youth was a natural extension of their activities. Over one third of the organizations profiled have recieved NEA support.

In recent years the NEA also has expanded its partnership collaborations with other government agencies such as the Corporation for National and Community Service, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice to encourage greater involvement of arts organizations in federally supported community prevention programs for youth. Projects supported through these federal partnerships often have national impact or serve as models to encourage the expansion of support for programs that utilize the arts to benefit at-risk youth.

State humanities councils, largely supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), also grew during the 1970s, and with their expansion began a flourishing of literacy, oral history and community revitalization programs. These programs encourage scholars to take active roles in their communities, bringing their perspectives into active play and bringing the community together around discussions of important issues. Humanities councils in Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, Vermont and the District of Columbia created programs that are described in Chapter Six.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), established in 1976, serves all varieties of museums from art, history, science and children's museums to zoos and botanical gardens. IMLS supports museums that have taken an active role in their communities and have reached out to new audiences. Museums in partnership with community leaders, educators and others are creating innovative and effective ways to address a wide range of social concerns. Museum programs for at-risk children range from art activities fostering personal expression to opportunities for exploring cultural heritage and building skills and confidence through inquiries into the world of science. More than a dozen programs created by museums are described in this report, including programs at children's museums in Brooklyn, New York; Holyoke, Massachusetts; Indianapolis, Indiana; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Seattle, Washington; as well as at the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, New York State Museum in Albany and The Mexican Museum in San Francisco.

Programs that reach youth by engaging them in cultural activities arise under many circumstances. Some are started by artists or teachers concerned about young people; others are begun by mayors or by juvenile justice or youth workers who want to provide positive experiences for children and youth.

When visual artists at City Center Art in Birmingham, Alabama, noticed neighborhood children hanging out at their warehouse, they developed an arts program-Space One Eleven-for youth who live in the nearby housing complex.

In Buffalo, New York, children knocked on the door of a local artist named Molly Bethel asking her to teach them to paint. That was over 35 years ago, and today, MollyOlga Neighborhood Art Classes remains a neighborhood sanctuary, available to any young person.

Television director Roberto Arevalo began The Mirror Project at Somerville Community Access Television in 1992 after meeting eight teenagers at a local park in Somerville, Massachusetts. He began to work with them, helping them to explore their neighborhoods with video cameras. Two of the videos won awards, and now, with partial funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the program operates at housing developments, Boys and Girls Clubs and community centers in the area.

Sometimes artists who have retired from their performing careers draw upon their backgrounds to help young people. Former ballerina turned defense attorney Sherry Jason and her public defender husband Bob started the Sentenced to the Stage program for juvenile offenders in Topanga, California. In this program, offenders must participate in acting and dancing workshops as a condition of their probation. Similarly, a former Joffrey and American Ballet Theatre dancer leads classes at OneArt studio's Kids Off Streets program, in Miami, Florida, located in one of the most violent neighborhoods in the country.

Some programs were founded by nationally known artists or organizations. Alvin Ailey Company, for example, initiated AileyCamp for high-risk children, and the dance camp now runs in Frostburg, Maryland, Kansas City and New York City. Since 1966, the Arena Stage in the District of Columbia has run the Living Stage Theatre Company for poor children, teen mothers and incarcerated youth. The Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Theatre is building a positive record with first-time offenders, teen parents and other at-risk youth through its Project Self Discovery in Denver.

For other organizations, the impetus to launch youth outreach programs is more practical. For example, the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia runs an arts-enriched preschool program for children living in a public housing project across the street. Since the School was empty during the morning hours, it seemed logical to use the space for nearby children.

It is impossible to pinpoint exactly what stimulates the personal vision and commitment of the individuals behind these programs. Whatever their reasons, perhaps the most compelling is that the needs of today's children are so profound.