Transforming Lives: An Overview Of Arts And Humanities Programs
While this study focuses on programs outside school curricula, schools remain very much involved. Sixty-eight percent of the arts and humanities programs report that they work in partnership with schools. Schools identify children who would benefit from these programs and make their facilities available after hours. Some programs deliberately build on in-school learning, while others run in-school programs in addition to community programs.
Partnerships are an integral part of these programs. In fact, most organizations seek and develop collaborations with other groups, enriching their resources and expanding the opportunities they can provide for children and youth. To a large degree, the impact and sustainability of these programs depends on innovative alliances. Partners can be active participants or providers of support services such as facilities, materials and funding.
The Victory in Peace Program, created by the Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts in Racine, Wisconsin, is a partnership among the Museum, the Racine Urban League, the Racine Council for the Prevention of Drug and Alcohol Abuse and The Taylor Home and Education Center. In this program, young people
create books that are then sold to museums and rare book collections around the country or placed in the local library and the Wustum Museum.
California Lawyers for the Arts in San Francisco collaborates with the San Francisco Unified School District and the Private Industry Council, a nonprofit organization that administers federal Job Training Partnership Act funds, to find employment for youth in local cultural institutions.
The Community Arts Partnership program, run by Plaza de la Raza in Los Angeles, pairs youth with art students from the California Institute for the Arts. These one-on-one mentoring relationships are developed at community centers throughout the city.
Similarly, college students from Brown University, Rhode Island College and Providence College, along with independent music and dance teachers, act as mentors to young people in The Cultural Alternatives Program of The Music School in Providence, Rhode Island. Participating youth also receive training in violence prevention from the University of Rhode Island Teen Crime Prevention Program.
The Cultural Center for
the Arts in Canton, Ohio, initiated Children's Art Connection for children ages 8 to 12, in partnership with the Canton Ballet,
the Canton Symphony Orchestra, the Canton Museum of Art and The Players Guild. Through this program, children attend artist-led classes and performances held at the participating cultural institutions.