Introduction and Summary
"Too often today, instead of children discovering the joyful rewards of painting, or music, or sculpting, or writing or testing a new idea, they express themselves through acts of frustration, helplessness, hopelessness and even violence," noted Hillary Rodham Clinton in remarks to the President's Committee. "We see too clearly how an erosion and a breakdown of our most cherished institutions have resulted in a fraying of the whole social fabric. We know that the arts have the potential for obliterating the limits that are too often imposed on our lives. We know that they can take anyone, but particularly a child, and transport that child beyond the bounds that circumstance has
prescribed."
The First Lady encouraged the Committee to offer concrete ideas "about how we can provide children with safe havens." She noted, "The arts and humanities have the potential for being such safe havens. In communities where programs already exist, they are providing soul-saving and life-enhancing opportunities for young people."
As a first step, the President's Committee produced this report to identify community programs in the arts and the humanities that reach at-risk children and youth and to describe the principles and practices that make these programs effective.
In September 1994, President Clinton announced his appointments to the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. He and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who serves as Honorary Chair of the President's Committee, charged the Committee to increase the availability of the arts and the humanities to children, especially to those at-risk.