Young Audiences Partners With Area Schools, Empowers Students With Onsite Arts Programming

Originally posted by Melissa Greiner, Executive Editor of Philadelphia Family Magazine on August 10. 2015

When we send our children to school, we want them to get an education. We want them to be prepared for the real world, to thrive in impactful careers, to give back to the community. We worry about reading, math, spelling. And while we do love the creativity their drawings show and the color they add to the fridge, we may worry less about the amount of arts education they are receiving.

However countless studies have shown that those traditional subjects of English or Geometry go hand-in-hand with Drama or Choir. It’s been shown that exposure to a strong arts curriculum can improve a child’s literary and math skills. It gives them an outlet and, in turn, helps them become more focused. It helps them learn empathy and community, making them better citizens.

It was with this knowledge and a strong belief in the power of arts education that Young Audiences New Jersey & Eastern Pennsylvania was founded. Working with schools across the area each year they bring arts programming to over 400,000 children throughout New Jersey and Eastern PA. Young Audiences’ offerings vary from interactive performances to multi-day workshops to professional development for teachers. Through each, children are exposed to professional working artists, educated on various art forms, and given the opportunity to create their own works of art, expanding their imaginations.

Fitler Academics Plus is one local school that has recently partnered with Young Audiences to bring arts education to its students – and at the request of the students.

“We realized that our students had no artistic outlet at Fitler,” says Rachael Pringle, an 8th grade teacher. “We have no visual or performing arts program, our music program is minimal, and we started the 2013-2014 school year without a music teacher. Then one day, our 8th grade class president made a bold statement to our principal, Anthious Boone, and said, ‘Mr. Boone, YOU don’t hear our voices.’ It was this statement that triggered the concept for an Emerging Artists Youth Cafe.”

Working with Young Audiences and their resident artists, as well as applying for arts grants, Pringle and other teachers created a program that focused on art mediums that would allow for those students to truly have their voices heard. Classes included Hip Hop, Spoken Word, and Percussion.

“We envisioned giving our students a platform to express their thoughts, ideas, and emotions by way of offering the artistic outlet to do so,” says Pringle. “I grew up in the performing arts and knew the benefits of having an arts program available to our students. With the massive budget cuts within the school district, we understood the only way we would see any type of art program at Fitler would be if we actively sought out grants in order to make our vision a reality.”

Young Audiences resident artists set up shop at Fitler, creating mini classes to engage and educate the students. Mark Wong and Steve Lunger got the kids out from behind a desk with Hip Hop Fundamentals.

“This kind of partnership between an artist and a school is unfortunately all too rare, and even more rare is the ability to use Hip Hop in a classroom setting. Being able to work with the amazing faculty at Fitler is an artist’s dream, as they fully embraced our methods and content,” Wong says.

Jacob Winterstein joined Wong and Lunger at Fitler to lead the students in Spoken Word Poetry, and says he loves to watch how children break through, sharpen focus, and grow during the course of the program.

“At the start of the residency there is no poem. We’re wandering through the challenging process of creation. Then a poem or rap is born and the students take care of it, nurture it and prepare it to be shared with others,” he says. “It’s an opportunity to talk about what is important to them. Often times in school students are receivers of knowledge and experiences. As young artists they get to be the creators of experience and sharers of their own knowledge and experiences. That’s powerful.”

“The goal of this residency was to empower students through the arts,” agrees Wong. “’Can you hear me now?’ was the essential question of this residency, aimed towards aiding students to find and use their artistic voices. They created individual poetry, small group work dance pieces, and ensemble drumming, which culminated in an amazing performance at the Salvation Army Kroc Center. Students wove personal stories, societal injustice, and definitions of self-expression into their words, movements, and sounds. Watching these young artists perform with heart and passion equaling any professional performer was a powerful indicator that our goal was reached.”

The result is not only students who are more well-rounded and engaged, but that are inspired.

“Words cannot truly describe the response we see from our students,” says Pringle. “We have seen introverted students find their hidden voice and use the cafe as the break-out-of-their-shell moment to shine. We have seen two students who are on the autism spectrum flourish. At graduation this year, we awarded a “Breakout Artist of the Year” [award and the winner] heard his entire graduating class chant the verse of his Spoken Word poem with honor and pride. The excitement is electric and can be felt throughout the school building.”

Agreed one of the recent graduates: “The program has taught me to be myself and do what I was born to do, whether it is being an actress, a writer, or whatever I aspire to do one day. To just continue to speak up so that people can hear my voice.”

Want to see first-hand the talents of the Young Audiences team and learn more about how you can help students at your local school find their voice and passion? Join them October 1 for a Fall Artists Showcase at Mother Teresa Regional Catholic School in King of Prussia.

Photos by JAS Photography.