artworxLA is a non-profit organization combating the high school dropout crisis by creatively engaging alternative education high school students. In this short film, filmmaker Rich Lee and his partner Louise Baker Lee spent an entire day with Zion, learning about his creative process, his life, his neighborhood, and the impact artworxLA has had on his life.
“Your story is enough, and it matters. So tell it, and tell it well.”
Since 2008, the Deep Center has given youth in Savannah, Georgia the tools and encouragement to write with skill, confidence, and courage. Recognizing that students with poor literacy skills are more likely to drop out, Deep brings free and fun after-school writing instruction to youth in some of the city’s low-performing middle schools. Through instruction, discussion, one-on-one mentoring, and writing exercises, dedicated volunteer Writing Fellows work with students to develop fundamental writing skills and creative self-expression once a week for 11 weeks. Continue reading
With a firm belief that “arts and arts education are essential components of a well-rounded human experience and a civil community,” the Armory Center for the Arts launched in 2006 an ambitious program called Art High. Its goal: Make out-of-school arts instruction more accessible to the young people of Pasadena, California by providing free year-round classes and mentorship opportunities at parks, schools, and community centers. Continue reading
We are Indian and we are proud. We still sing. We still laugh. We still dream. We still stand. – Jayden Lim
At the 2016 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award’s White House ceremony, which honors programs that are national models in the field of creative youth development, Jayden Lim was the youth speaker on behalf of the California Indian Museum and Cultural Center. Continue reading
This year, the Mass Cultural Council awarded 15 Amplify grants totaling $15,000 to projects designed and executed by young people in programs receiving YouthReach or SerHacer funding. Amplify shines a spotlight on the contributions these young people make to their communities by supporting them directly in creating and publicly sharing their work.
Alchemy is a nonprofit organization in Akron, OH that provides a safe environment and sense of community to assist in the development of urban adolescents through the telling, discussion, and interpretation of mythological stories and fairy tales told to the beat of an African drum.
Since 2003, Alchemy has worked with over 2,000 male youth in its creative youth development programs. In 2012, they received the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from the President’s Committee on the Arts & Humanities. Continue reading
Amplify, Mass Cultural Council’s grant program created to support youth led and designed projects, is starting to bear fruit, the first of which was the wonderful Pop-Up Parasol exhibit by Youth Mentor Rachel at Express Yourself (EXYO).
Originally conceived as a smaller project involving 20 hand-painted parasols to be on public display at Cumming Center, the idea took hold and blossomed due to the leadership of Rachel, an EXYO mentor, who empowered by the Amplify grant took it upon herself to fundraise and manage the entire project, recruiting peers and participants from EXYO and eventually more than tripling the original project scope. The parasols were displayed in a 70 foot long installation which opened on April 26, bringing color to a cold spring afternoon in Beverly.
We also have our social imagination: the capacity to invent
visions of what should be and what might be in our deficient
society, on the streets where we live, in our schools. – Maxine Greene
Today the Mass Cultural Council introduces Amplify Youth Voices; a new initiative to raise the voices of young people whose creative expression is driving positive change in communities across the state.
Amplify grants provide support for projects designed and executed by young people in programs that are currently receiving YouthReach or SerHacer funding. A total of $11,440 was awarded with each grantee receiving up to $1,000.