Category: Arts Education

Student Spotlight: DJ echo emerald

Posted on Tuesday, December 3rd, 2024 at 7:41 pm
Written by Arts Corps

Headshot of a white teen whit blond hair and headphones, with text "DJ Emerald Echo" beneath, and graphic of sound waves
Photo by Carlos Cruz

KEXP’s Youth Radio Program allows youth to work with KEXP DJs, to gain knowledge and training in music curation, board operation, physical and digital asset management, and basic broadcast DJing skills. The youth also become one of the rotating hosts for 90. Teen, a show programmed and produced by teens which airs on Saturdays, 6:00-7:00am.

One of our interagency students, DJ emerald echo, is part of the program and just hosted his first show on Saturday, Nov. 23! He shared his set list with us below.

Listen to his show through KEXP’s archive, by going to Nov. 23 and then Youth DJ.

I grew up in Seattle on many of the songs from my sets. I fell in love with 80s 90s rock on my Walkman and expanded from there. I have been exposed to all different types of music since before I could talk and I love the impact it has on the community. My favorite genre currently is house and 90s hip hop/ rap but you can never forget the classics. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to share my favorites with listeners like you and I hope you like my show 🙂 

NOV. 23 SET LIST

Modjo – Lady (Hear Me Tonight) 
MODJO

Holly – True 2 Me 
TRUE 2 ME

Stardust – Music Sounds Better With You 
MUSIC SOUNDS BETTER WITH YOU

MC Conrad, Seba – Words 2B Heard Meets Planetary Funk Alert
VOCALIST 01

Joey Bada$$ – Righteous Minds 
1999

Cypress Hill – Insane in the Brain
BLACK SUNDAY

Skee-lo – I Wish
I WISH 

The Pharcyde – Passin’ Me By 
BIZARRE RIDE

Ezra Collective, Yazmin Lacey – God Gave Me Feet For Dancing
DANCE, NO ONE’S WATCHING

Kelly Finnigan – Be Your Own Shelter
BE YOUR OWN SHELTER

INXS – Never Tear Us Apart
KICK

Walter the Producer – Now We’re Getting There
PLEASE HELP ME I’M SCARED

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Arts Corps’ New Program at the Youth Detention Center

Posted on Friday, November 1st, 2024 at 5:45 pm
Written by Arts Corps

 

                A black-and-white picture of Maria, a Latina woman with long curly hair, in front of a bookshelf with lamp     

For the last few years, Arts Corps has brought arts education into the Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center to engage the students at Alder Academy, located inside. Alder is one of five sites that Arts Corps serves in our collaboration with Interagency, a network of alternative high schools that are part of the Seattle Public Schools District and that supports students who have not found success at traditional schools due to a wide range of factors related to systemic oppression. The students at interagency are farthest from educational justice, and at Alder our youth are facing the justice system. Arts Corps classes help provide these students with safe, consistent space for creative expression, social-emotional development, and arts-based strategies for engagement in school.

Through our time at Alder, we see the meaningful and transformative impact that arts have on these students’ lives. We wanted this impact to go even further and to reach more of the youth who need art as a right to healing and self-expression. So we decided that our classes within the Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center needed to serve not just Interagency students, but incarcerated youth as well. After months of working with the Department of Adults and Juvenile Detention, we are now starting a new program to bring visual arts, movement, and spoken word to youth in detention.

Two of the programs’ teaching artists, Heather Harris and Maria Guillen Valdovinos, shared with us a little more about this new initiative.

What is each of you teaching in this new program?
 
H: I am excited to begin teaching the art of movement at the youth detention center.
 
M: I will be teaching visual arts, graphic design, illustration and collective muralism. 
 
What is the importance of having art within spaces like the Youth Detention Center and of offering these different mediums? 
 
H: The dance class will give the participants an opportunity to create movement, share stories and expression, as well as working on strength building, stretching and learning a variety of lyrical and jazz-based dance steps.
 
M: As a creative abolitionist I believe the arts, movement and expression should be accessible to everyone, especially youth incarcerated. There are so many ways to process lived experiences and at any stage in life anyone can be an artist. The arts ignite creative thought process, challenge dominant narratives, how we communicate and help us build collective ideas. These spaces are needed for youth to express themselves and be able to develop creative skills with community teaching artists. 
 
What are some challenges of the program? What are some areas of opportunities? 
 
H: Some of the challenges have been just getting clearance of paperwork before entering the facility, but we are making our way through the process and will be starting soon.
 
M: Some of the challenges are materials & tools becoming a liability, which is also a great opportunity to learn about different mediums & methods. Developing skills with technology and learning the process of both hand-drawn & digital drawing is something I always appreciate teaching youth. There are so many ways to be a creative person, and I think it is great as an arts community we can provide these resources to people experiencing incarceration. 
                                                                                            
You were approached for the program due to your experience as teaching artists. What is one lesson you’ve learned through time that you are bringing into the program?
 
M: Over the years I’ve learned as an artist & educator invested in community to be flexible and respect others autonomy. 
 
What is the role of art in social justice and in conversations of social issues such as youth incarceration?
 
H: I believe that Art is a wonderful tool to release emotions, tap into creativity and to meet each person exactly where they are at in their journey. 
 
M: The arts are inherently political and necessary for social revolutions; helping us shift our knowledge and find new ways to exist. Youth who experience incarceration deserve to be treated with dignity and have access to arts education. The arts create opportunities for understanding, knowledge, solidarity, and plays a vital role in shaping all aspects of societies.

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Faculty Spotlight: Yaz Williams

Posted on Saturday, September 28th, 2024 at 12:31 am
Written by Arts Corps

A selfie of Yaz, a black person in their 20s on a sidewalk, wearing white sunglasses and their shaped in 5 points

Yaz joined Arts Corps last winter as a Classroom Assistant and this year they are stepping up as a Teaching Artist. Recently, they were kind enough to share some of their thoughts, experiences, and practices of being a teaching artist.

“Being a teaching artist to me is being able to have influence and be influenced by the youth without being necessarily in a traditional educational setting”.

Yaz had always wanted to be a professional creative but they never expected to be an educator. To them, traditional educational settings place teachers in a loop, bound by a list of requisites they need to teach in a set amount of time. In their mind, this seemed taxing and problematic, because it often leads to difficult conversation being dismissed in the classroom due to a lack of time.

However, Yaz realized there are alternative routes to be an educator, giving them the opportunity to be someone who can have these difficult conversations, “We all come from different backgrounds. I’m not going to shy away from the experience of your background in comparison to mine. We come from different backgrounds, and sometimes we have stigmas against people with certain backgrounds. We’re gonna talk about that.”

Yaz’s practice centers the power of voice, the power of choice, and teaching responsibility through action. When they set rules, they explain the reasons behind the rule by discussing how each action is a choice and how each choice has consequences for ourselves and others. “I’m not gonna be like, oh, you did this wrong. I’m gonna say we don’t do these things because of this. We should not do that because these are the consequences of that action.”

This also leads to teaching youth how to advocate for themselves and respect others’ boundaries, “I want [them] to be learning how to ask for help. I want [them] to learn to say ‘I’m not okay with that, I’m not comfortable with that, you made me feel this way’”.

Yaz uses art as a way for students to practice their power. When Yaz presents an activity they say, “I’m gonna show you how I do it. I’m gonna give you the tools for that. But then it’s up to you how you wanna achieve that goal. And you might not even want to achieve the same physical goal that I would.”

The most challenging thing about using art as a medium is that a lot of people, regardless of age, view art as a skill or as a privilege.

“Art is a right”, Yaz says, “Everybody has the right to create…[But] a lot of times kids will not pick up a paintbrush, pick up an activity because of that inherent, ‘Oh, I’m not gonna be good at it’. I’m not asking to be good. I’m asking you to try.”

So the focus of their art lessons is not just about improving certain skills, but also about pushing through the fear of failure, the fear of success, the “taking yourself too seriously”.

“In my space I want you to participate, and participation is success. Working through your frustrations is success. I like anything you give me. But I’m gonna defy some things because I want you to see your own progress.”

Challenging what art or success might look like allows Yaz to approach learning as a process rather than a product, recognizing students as individuals with their own needs and skills. For example, Yaz might say, “I wanted you to try tracing it, because this is teaching you how to hold a pencil. I’m looking at how you’re holding your pencil, so I can see if I can correct the way that you do it. Even still, if you hold your paintbrush up here, that doesn’t mean you’re better than someone that holds your paintbrush down here. It’s that you have different versions of control, of how you use your paintbrush.”

For this upcoming year, Yaz wants to lean into the sense of limitlessness that art as a whole has to offer and so for their for first curriculum as a teaching artist they choose the topic of world-building.

“I’m really, really excited to see what comes out of this entire course because I might have painters, I might have story writers, I might have people that build a little tribe of dolls because they have that skill set. I’m just excited to see a new generation of artists that have the freedom of being whoever they want to be, because they were taught the techniques of something, the definitions of something, rather than how you should create with it.”

Something else they’re excited about being a new Arts Corps Teaching Artist?

“At the excuse being a sap, I’ve literally waited my entire life to be this person. It was never a dream that I thought was accomplishable. So like, I’m giddy just imagining being in a space as this version of myself and being ready to be with kids. And I’m just really, really excited to see how my students receive me, and my excitement. I’m excited for it all”. 

Yaz Williams is a multi-disciplinary artist from Raleigh, North Carolina who is Black, AFAB, and queer and as such, their work is centered in Black and Afro-centric standpoints. Some of their practices are graphic novels, storytelling, prints, and stickers. Yaz moved to Seattle in 2022 as a Montessori school teacher and has since worked with South End Stories and LAUNCH. They got a BA in Child Adolescent Psychology from the HBCU, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in order to learn what techniques were historically created as marginalization tools, how to move away from them, and how to better serve BIPOC students. As an artist and a person, they are interested in sustainability, third spaces such as libraries and tool workshops, learning different communication styles, and cultural education. They want to increase their own cultural knowledge and that of others in order to help build a better sense of community. They enjoy visiting new places and sitting in parks.

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Community Spotlight: Manny Cawaling on Doors Open

Posted on Thursday, October 26th, 2023 at 12:55 am
Written by Arts Corps

A youth wearing a shirt reading "Make Art Anyway" sitting in front of a doorway, cleaning a glass door
An Art 4 Life intern helps clean the glass door into CAM, to display art behind it.

 

At Arts Corps, we know the necessity of arts education. The skills built through culturally relevant art classes are the skills necessary to understand ourselves, each other, and the world around us. It is through creativity that we are able to navigate the present, and it is through creativity that we will be able to imagine and create a better future. We also know that the cultural sector in our communities has been facing difficult circumstances. Inequities relating to access that have long existed were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and its lasting effects. We start the school year with many art programs in our community endangered, if not already gone. This is why advocacy for arts education and the greater cultural sector is so important. Thankfully, there are people who have been doing the work. 

Inspire Washington is Washington state’s cultural advocacy organization, uplifting the power of science, heritage, and the arts. For several years, they have been working on a program that would increase funding for the cultural sector, thereby increasing access for all people to have culturally meaningful experiences. Recently, they’ve reached a major milestone. Manny Cawaling, Executive Director of Inspire Washington, was kind enough to take a moment amidst the commotion to connect with us and explain what is happening.  

 First, some background: 

Back in 2015, the state of Washington passed a legislature (RCW 36.160) granting local governments power to create a Cultural Access Program in their city or county. This program would be funded by a small sales tax and could make transformative investment in cultural programming. 

So far, two communities in Washington have adapted their own program: Tacoma passed a program in November 2018, called Tacoma Creates and Olympia passed one in the spring of 2022, with the name Inspire Olympia. 

So, what happened recently?

On Monday, Sep. 25, King County Executive Dow Constantine, introduced legislation to King County Council asking them to adopt the cultural access program. It would be called “Doors Open”. This is a major milestone! 

What does this mean?

“Well,” explained Manny, “It means that, if approved by the council, there would be an increase in public investment for cultural programs of over $90 million a year”. This would be a historic investment in the nation. Washington’s creative industry already represents 10.8% of the state’s GDP, so an active investment in the industry would help develop the local and state economy. Still, the true meaning of a cultural access program would be the impact on the community.

Historically, there have been various communities that have been excluded from cultural programs for a variety of reasons, including cost and cultural relevance. Public funding would help bridge this access gap. It can incentivize organizations to create more diverse offerings, and it would increase the possibilities of new programs happening in more places. “There are kids that live in a city in King County who want to be in a youth choir, but their parents can’t drive them across town to the nearest youth choir. Well, with funding that community could start their own, right?” 

Space is another big issue in King County. Beyond the problematic fact that people who work in the creative sector often can’t afford places to live, we also lack affordable spaces for exhibitions and performances. More funding means we could build more spaces or renovate the ones which already exist. We can make spaces more accessible, so that a greater number of people can enjoy them.  

Finally, the investment would directly impact people. “I know that [when running cultural organizations] half of my budget was always, at least half of my budget was always people.” Manny shared, “I feel very confident that investing over $90 million in cultural programs will build jobs, build cultural and creative jobs.” Not only that, but the jobs which already exist could improve their wages. Currently, the wages in Washington’s cultural sector can’t compete with other industries. As a result, creative and cultural workers are either changing sectors or leaving the state of Washington. This funding can help create the resources which people need to stay in the area and stay in the sector. 

What happens next?

A cultural access program in King County is still not a done deal. It must be approved by the King County Council, who is currently debating it. 

One of the issues that are being discussed is the sales tax which would pay for the program. The tax is modest, $40 per year per household. However, Manny explained that some argue against it because it’s regressive, meaning it disproportionately affects lower-income communities. The argument on behalf of the sales tax is that the program is focused on providing resources to these same low-income communities, who are currently being under-served.  

“I have a really on-the-ground perspective.” Manny tells us, “My dad was a machinist in Boeing. We were a Filipino American family, one-income household, we couldn’t afford a lot of things. But my dad also understood the value of a good deal. He loved museums, so he was always looking in the newspaper and reading newsletters finding out when there were free days, and that is how he pieced together cultural experiences for us. So I will agree that sales tax is regressive. I also understand this program will overdeliver for communities that are low income.”

In the 2022-23 school year, 69% of the youth Arts Corps served were on free or reduced lunch. Many of our families are facing the very real challenges of economic disparity. These same families are the ones who consistently give us the same feedback, quarter after quarter, year after year: provide more programming. Parents and students alike wish there were more classes, on more days, for longer periods of time. They understand the value of art and the fact that their communities deserve to experience the beauty and joy it brings. Our staff and faculty do their best to create as deep of an impact as possible, but we are ultimately restricted by limited funds. Many organizations are in similar positions.  

The rich, tangible value that a Cultural Access Program would provide to our youth, families, and communities is the reason why we must advocate for it to pass. Funding means more access to museums, more art classes, more beauty and joy for everyone. This program is an opportunity for us as the public to prioritize creativity and to invest in ourselves and each other.

How do we help?

The fact that King County Council is debating the Doors Open Program means that we have an opportunity to share our creativity and the deep impact it makes in our life. On Nov. 1st, the council will be holding a hearing that the community can attend virtually. It is important to display large community support, so please attend.

During the hearings, the council will be listening to testimonies. As a community of artists, we understand the power of a story. As a community of artists, now is the time when our stories can spur action. Each testimony lasts only about a minute or two. If you would like to testify about why this issue matters to you on Nov. 1 at 9:30am, you can sign up here. 

Thank you to Manny for helping us understand the significance of this moment, “It matters because there have been people and communities across King County that historically have not had access to programs and that’s not right. There’s no justice in that. Arts Corps is of course an arts organization, but you are also a social justice organization. We need to make sure that the communities that you serve get the same level of access as other communities. This is an urgent need. It’s about equity.”

Learn more about the proposed Doors Open program here. 

—GRECIA M. LEAL PARDO, Development and Communications Coordinator

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Q&A: The Importance of Arts Education in Schools

Posted on Wednesday, January 4th, 2023 at 9:55 pm
Written by Arts Corps

A pencil drawing of a woman with curly hair and freckles surrounded by stars. Around her, "My Universe Revolves Around Change"

Sylvester Middle School, located in Burien, Washington, is in its fourth year partnering with us and chose to allocate a substantial portion of its budget to Arts Corps programming. In the following conversation, interim principal Chad Kodama and classroom teacher Tatiana Hahn reflect on the impact of arts integration in education and youth development at their school.

Arts Corps: Tell us a little about Sylvester more broadly, for those who may not be familiar.

Chad Kodama: Sylvester is a part of the Highline School District and we’re a 6th through 8th grade middle school. There’s a portion of students on free and reduced lunch plans and we’re also pretty diverse comparatively, serving around 50% white students and 50% students of color, the largest groups represented are from Latino and/or Hispanic, Black, and Pacific Islander communities.

Arts Corps: What were your impressions of the arts in school prior to the Arts Corps partnership?

Tatiana Hahn: I just celebrated my one year anniversary here last week, and before that, it was really limited. We only have the one art class and we have some art clubs and after school groups, but there are many, many, many kiddos here that have a lot of artistic ability — a lot of drawing, a lot creativity, stuff like that — and there just aren’t a lot of outlets for that kind of thing. Kelly, another teacher across the hall, was telling me about Arts Corps curriculum when I first got here and she was like, ‘Just wait until [Arts Corps] gets here, it’ll be a blast.’ That’s how I first found out about your work. Kelly got me all jazzed because she’d had such a positive experience every time.

Arts Corps: Sylvester Middle School recently designated $6,000 to Arts Corps programming. Why?

CK: Right, so I’m the custodian of public funds, meaning that I decide what to prioritize based on both community and staff input. Having worked with Arts Corps in the past, we saw the immense impact that it had on our core content areas. It was very important for us to keep the program up and running and to expand it beyond just one grade level, so now we’re doing three grade levels! Our teachers love it and our students engage with the lessons in a way that they might not otherwise in a more traditional setting. It’s really about making sure every child has something, an activity or interest, that they can connect with at school.

TH: You all just do amazing work with our kids. After I sat in on a lesson, I was like, ‘OK, I understand why kids love this and I understand why classroom teachers are totally willing to give up their teaching time to have Arts Corps come in. It’s a lot of time, but it’s worth every minute.

Arts Corps: Can you take us through what it’s like to sit in on an Arts Corps class?

TH: We spoke with teaching artist Meredith beforehand and then when her and Brian came in, they just had such beautiful control of the class in a way that honestly surprised me. They created this wonderful energy that the kids immediately picked up on, one of discipline and real respect. Even students who usually have problems in class were able to be quiet and positive just so they could participate, which you know, they’re not always able to do.

Arts Corps: What is the value of integrating the arts in with other academic subjects?

CK: Kids learn in so many different ways and so we educators need to make sure to offer multiple avenues to authentically connect with subject matter. When we started partnering with Arts Corps, there were so many robust, culturally responsive options for students to find their entry point into lessons. That is hugely important.

TH: The arts make learning more fun, engaging, interactive, and really accessible. I have many students who won’t say they’re mathmeticians or good readers, but they will say that they’re artists. That’s so awesome, right? A lot of them are willing to take that title of ‘artist’ on and really own it. That pride is beautiful to see in a 12-year-old student. With other subjects, there’s this perception that you have to be an expert or be really comfortable with it to succeed. With art, students get to create something that’s all themselves. No judgement, nothing quantifiable or measurable, just pure creative expression.

This article originally appeared in the Arts Corps 2022 Annual Report.

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Reimagining Teen Programs: Art 4 Life

Posted on Wednesday, December 28th, 2022 at 7:52 pm
Written by Arts Corps

Arts Corps stepped into our future in 2022 when we launched our revamped teen arts program, Art 4 Life. This program offers youth 13-18 years old paid creative internship opportunities. This summer, Art 4 Life Digital: Art on the Web, was held virtually on Zoom and Art 4 Life Analog: Sustaining Expression, was hosted by Yes Farm, a Black Farmers Collective in Seattle. Teaching artist Meredith Arena got a chance to observe both cohorts:

When I visit the Art 4 Life Analog at Yes Farm, youth participants are scattered around the bountiful garden sketching. They circle up under the biggest tree to reflect on the activity and then buzz around, eager to see one another’s drawings before moving into the greenhouse to continue designs on some garden boxes. Art 4 Life curriculum was designed to replicate working on commission, so Yes Farm tasked them with creating a mural and designing garden boxes as a part of their learning process. The boxes are low to the ground, so most sit or lie down to paint. They collaborate, studying their sketches and planning how to bring them to life.

Hassiel, a youth who wears sunglasses and headphones, paints a strawberry with sunglasses and headphones while his fellow group members paint green vines all the way around the box. Another group paints PRIDE radishes, each radish the colors of a different pride flag. They create endless new color blends –– oranges, purples, a snappy mint green, bubblegum, and fuchsia to name a few. I watch another group split their paint roller into two tones of blue and apply a sky to their box. When the blue dries, they fill the space with sunflowers and butterflies.

Youth creativity is thriving here, saturated in the greens and yellows of the garden, dappled with long awaited sunlight. They break for a hot organic meal, which includes food from the garden made by Chef Steph, a local chef who regularly cooks for the farm. In 2021, teen programming at Arts Corps was at a crossroads. The organization needed to choose between revamping the offerings for teens or turning fully to K-8 programming. Co-Director of Arts Education, Olisa Enrico, describes the process of creating Art 4 Life, named after teaching artist Greg Thornton’s Print 4 Life, a longtime Arts Corps program. “When we stepped back to reassess, we still wanted to work with teens.” Teens are crucial to what Olisa calls the “spectrum of youth development” and she wanted to design a program that was relevant to teen lives and desires.

Olisa and other staff combed through years of student surveys, held focus groups with past and current students, and spoke with younger teaching artists who had participated as youth in Arts Corps’ previous teen programs. What would they create if they had to reinvent teen programs? The idea that emerged is now central to the Art 4 Life ethos: “You can utilize your passion for art, for success in your life. You can use your creativity toward an outcome.” They defined four main areas “like the branches of a tree,” Olisa explains. “Connecting to community, career connected learning, social justice awareness, and creative practice.”

The youth at the farm tell me they joined this program to gain and practice art skills and to get to know other young people. They seem completely relaxed at Yes Farm, moving about with their paintbrushes and sketchbooks in hand, serving themselves cold hibiscus iced tea. I watch them experiment, share ideas, ask questions, and work attentively on the task at hand. Their teaching artists Greg and Vega, along with classroom assistant ZAG, are available with suggestions and support.

Today is the fourth day of a 2-week camp and I can feel the care and commitment that teaching artists and Yes Farm have crafted for youth. Everyone belongs here in a magic that feels distinct from our everyday lives in Seattle. At the western edge of the farm, amaranth plants sway over a busy I-5, cranes and construction frame the eastern edge of the farm, where a condominium is literally being built around the young people as they Make Art Anyway.

Later, when I visit Art 4 Life Digital camp, teaching artist Sorel shares work made by Gran Fury, the propaganda artist collective of the AIDS activist organization ACT UP. Youth discuss the importance of that design work within the context of activism and the AIDS movement. They look at current activist posters too, analyzing the use of color and the effectiveness of design choices. Today is a heat wave, but all students are present at their computers for camp.

Students in Art 4 Life Digital are learning Procreate, Adobe Fresco, and Vectornator. These three apps enable Continued on next page them to design and draw digitally. They are working on Arts Corps-provided iPads with stylus pens. “I draw to show myself. I draw to heal myself,” writes student Ekram in an artist statement. Another youth, Sally, writes: “The world we live in is big and beautiful and should be shared with everyone.”

The posters students design that day showcase Arts 4 Life’s knack for teaching the totality of social justice awareness, from identity outward to environmental and political issues. They read: “Mental Health Matters,” “Proud to Be a Pacific Islander,” “Don’t Hide Your Identity,” “Wear Your Culture with Pride,” and “Beautiful World: Getting Crowded.”

Art 4 Life initially had its test run during Spring Break 2022, when four cohorts (two middle school and two high school) participated in week-long online intensives in digital art. The idea was to integrate career connected learning, which can translate to school credit, résumé building, networking, professional panels, entrepreneurship, financial workshops, and an opportunity to earn money from making artwork. Students sold their artwork through Red Bubble on stickers, tote bags and other marketable items. Similarly, Art 4 Life Analog participants this past summer designed for a specific client, learning how to actualize a vision from a sketch to painting murals.

In the chat, students tell me that they love the daily prompts, the wellness check-ins, and the opportunity to try new things and be creative every day, demonstrating how both the skills and lifestyle required to build an arts practice is woven into the Art 4 Life experience.

I speak with Hayden, a senior at Decatur High School, and Tyon, a junior at Kentwood High School, who took both the spring and summer Art 4 Life. Hayden tells me, “I joined Arts Corps for the spring and summer internships because I like learning new things about art and the process of being an artist.” Tyon adds, “Summer is 10 times better because there is more time.” He likes that the class is doing something new every day and learning more skills. Before Art 4 Life, Tyon didn’t know anything about Procreate, a digital illustration app, but now sings its praises. He jokes that Vectornator, a complex professional graphic design software, made him cry, but that he still appreciates learning it.

When asked what they would take away, Tyon says he is leaving with a better idea of how to maintain a daily creative routine and discipline with art making. It brought structure to his days this past summer. “If I weren’t doing this, I wouldn’t be doing anything,” he says.

Accessibility, availability, and relevance are cornerstones of Art 4 Life. The programs are free and the online option means that youth who don’t have access to transportation or live far from where Arts Corps programming normally takes place in South King County can participate. The need is clearly there. Arts Corps received 560 applications for a mere 60 spots last spring.

Arts Corps Program Manager Cecelia DeLeon says that the success of the program is attributed to its relevance to youth needs: a hearty stipend for participation and “loving, caring” teaching artists who “are aware and know how to ask questions” of the youth. You will not find another program like Art 4 Life in the region right now and Cecelia imagines how popular the program would be if it were available statewide.

Bold imagination –– something the entire team at Arts Corps has engaged with this year. Utilizing our collective experiences in youth development and arts education, we are responding to the ever-changinvg realities of the youth we serve. It is this imagining, listening, and care that will continue to nurture the development of Art 4 Life and all our programs.

We are now challenged to think creatively, just like our young people. The murals students created for Yes Farm depict landscapes with music notes, fiery sunsets, linked hands, and flowers. They are abundant, fertile, life affirming, and they implore us to imagine a future that is big and beautiful.

This article originally appeared in the Arts Corps 2022 Annual Report.

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