CoMPAnY ProFIle
YounG AuDIenCeS
“I
found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way—things I had no words for.” Georgia O’Keeffe said these words, and so many children, even right here in Georgia, share the same feeling. Using the arts as a way to express thoughts and enhance learning (both in and out of the classroom) is becoming more widely accepted and is proven to help increase test scores and students’ overall academic achievement. With many schools cutting or eliminating the arts, schools and community venues are facing the challenge of how to keep the arts in their students’ everyday lives. Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center (YA) helps solve this problem. For almost 30 years, the Atlanta organization has been bringing the power of live arts experiences in music, dance, theatre, literary, and visual arts to young people from preschool through high school. With a roster of more than 70 professional artists and ensembles, YA’s curriculum-based programs reach more than 500,000 students in schools, recreation centers, libraries, museums, and other community venues throughout the state of Georgia every year. In addition to over 280 assembly, workshop, and residency programs—Young Audiences also has three literacy programs (smART START, Arts for Learning Lessons, and Digital Storytelling) which use arts integration to impact literacy and inspire education through the arts. Arts integration is an approach to teaching in which the arts leverage learning in other subject areas such as language arts, science, mathematics, and social studies. “During one of Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center’s programs, I watched students who were normally reserved and uninterested in the classroom setting come alive. Students who had no intensity for learning became excited about creating a project for a piece of literature they read. It was quite fascinating to see a child blossom from one extreme to another and then be excited and proud of his accomplishment,” said Dr. Annette Roberts, principal of Rainbow Elementary School. By learning through YA’s arts programs, young people will develop necessary 21st century skills (which includes thinking, reasoning, teamwork skills, and proficiency in using technology), and engage as life-long learners. To learn how to bring the arts into your school please visit www.yawac.org. 10