Empowering and Connecting Youth through the Arts

The Center for the Arts is embarking on an exciting campaign called “Empowering and Connecting Youth through the Arts” designed to offer and provide an all inclusive broad range quality arts program to children throughout the Canyon County area. Our objective for the art academy is to add to our previous programs in a unique way and offer a full range of arts instruction on a weekly basis. Rather than weekly individual classes the art academy will offer exposure to a broad range of all of the areas of the arts. Each week will focus on a different area and aspect of the arts, thus expose youth to a wider range of what the arts offer rather than merely focusing on one particular discipline. Classes will include the history and elements of music, visual art, dance, culinary arts, computer arts, literature, sewing, drama and theatre. Activities within these areas will include such as programs such as swashbuckling, puppetry, improvisation, painting and drawing, photography, animation, jazz music and dance, ceramics, mosaics, ballet and movement, costuming and set building, cultural arts and traditions to name a few. This exploration will give youth the ability to explore artistic areas they may not otherwise have had exposure to, and the wide variety of classes being offered will appeal to all ages and economic levels.

This program will not only enhance the lives of the youth involved but will also have the underlying aspect of character building, self esteem building and education enriching. This will impact the community in several areas as well. According to national statistics these students will most likely have an improvement in their test scores which positively impacts local schools. Youth who participate in arts programs have a higher rate of graduation, the raise in self esteem and a constructive activity alternative lowers the crime rate for youth which assists the community as a whole. Youth whose lives are positively impacted give back to their community.