Monday, October 09, 2006

Institutions like the YMCA Lead Our Way to the Arts

(Published in the Tribune & Georgian on 10.11.06; the Kings Bay Periscope on 10.12.06)

One institution that has been associated with both urban and suburban social trends for many years is the venerable YMCA. Traditionally known as places to learn how to do the breast stroke or make a jump shot, YMCAs are rapidly becoming the places where kids and adults learn to paint, write, sing or act. The year 2003 marked the fifth anniversary of arts and humanities as a YMCA core program. Collectively, YMCAs are the nation’s largest not-for-profit organization, and YMCA of the USA expects it will soon be one of the leading and most influential, if not largest, arts provider in the country for kids and adults.

Within the past half-decade, arts programs increased by 39 percent at YMCAs, and millions of dollars in program and arts facility development have been secured. There are new YMCA arts programs from coast to coast, distinguished by their ability to simultaneously support artists, community members, and cultural and other organizations.

Arts and humanities are among the fastest-growing programs at Ys. In 2001, the number of Ys offering performing arts programs rose 14 percent, literary arts programs went up 18 percent, and visual arts went up 22 percent. The organizations that deliver programs know about the cognitive and developmental-asset benefits that youth receive from arts participation; that youth are satisfied with the pleasure of arts participation and self-expression; and that the fulfillment of mastery of a new skill often outweighs other accomplishments. Novelist and playwright E.L. Doctorow, one of the many artists celebrating YMCAs’ new role in the arts, calls Y leadership efforts “unprecedented, crucial, breakthrough work - nothing less than the firing up of synapses in the national mind.”

Collaborations with local arts organizations continue to make the arts available at YMCAs. YMCAs collaborate to create time, space and new benefits for members, including special cultural discounts and access. In addition, many Ys are adding a service-learning component to arts programs, helping participants create public art such as murals. More and more artists are donating artwork and/or lending financial or programmatic support to YMCAs.

Arts participation, particularly working with a group on an artistic creation, satisfies many people’s ongoing needs for meaning and belonging. Study of and participation in the arts from different cultures is a way to draw upon and celebrate the growing diversity in the United States. As a sign of cultural awakening and awareness, it is vital to recognize that the expanded emphasis on the arts at YMCA facilities is a key indicator. Whether it is helping kids learn to train animal acts and acquire skills in order to perform with a live circus in Redlands, California or create a mosaic in a community garden in Phoenix, Arizona, YMCAs are clearly riding the trend toward a new arts awareness. What I cannot wait to see is how all this exposure, training and deeply held interest will translate into policy and practice when these children become the decision makers.

Opportunities for this week and the future: “Oklahoma” runs through Nov. 26 at the Alhambra Dinner Theatre; get your jazz fix with the first lady of jazz, Diane Schuur, at the UNF Fine Arts Center, Oct. 12; get more of the same at the Amelia Island Jazz Festival, Oct. 13; throw back concerts to catch at The Florida Theatre are Peter Frampton, Oct. 18, and Donovan on Nov. 24; if you are a dance aficionado, my dance experts tell me that you need to see Parsons Dance Company at the UNF Fine Arts Center on Oct. 20.

If you have ideas or events you want me to share with readers, send me a note at pkraack1@tds.net.

10.11.06

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