Young Audiences’ Impact in Philadelphia and Eastern PA

About our work in Philadelphia and Eastern PA

We are committed to reaching more students in the Eastern PA region. These commitments include:

  • Working with local foundations to secure grant funding that supports arts education in schools
  • Hiring more Pennsylvania-based teaching artists
  • Staff members dedicated to the work in Eastern PA

The Arts Impact Initiative (Aii)

Aii provides 5-, 10-, 15-, and 20-day arts residencies to Philadelphia schools. Programming includes:

  • Artist residency days that serve 4 classes/day; approximately 100 students/residency
  • Planning and support - Planning with teachers, a professional teaching artist, and a Young Audiences education staff member
  • Project materials
  • A culminating event
  • Program assessment

"Working with Young Audiences Arts for Learning has been a wonderful experience for my elementary school students. Collaboration was easy with the resident artist and my students loved the opportunity to work with materials that were not in my school's budget; we made two large looms and wove many different materials into it for a school-wide collaboration. When given the chance to work with Young Audiences again, I jumped on it because I believe that positive exposure to different media will enhance their learning and love of the Arts."

Jennifer Hillman, Art TeacherJennifer Hillman, Art TeacherRobert E. Lamberton Elementary School, Philadelphia, PA

Our education staff and teaching artists collaborate on program design and incorporate universal design elements, social-emotional learning competencies and alignment with our DEIA work.  As a part of this, we design programs to:

  • Develop a young person’s love and appreciation for the arts
  • Support academic learning and student engagement
  • Nurture creativity, critical thinking, and social-emotional skills
  • Increase knowledge and skills within art forms
  • Welcome varied learning styles and experiences
  • Encourage awareness and respect for other identities and points of view
  • Increase teacher knowledge and skills in teaching in and through the arts

Staff Lead - Michael Roberson Reid (he/him)

Arts Education Manager

1-866-500-9265 x219 | [email protected]

Michael Roberson Reid (he/him) leads YA's work in the city and region. Michael lives in Philadelphia and is a parent of a student in the School District of Philadelphia. He has worked in the education nonprofit field for nearly 15 years, focusing on holistic education, community development, and artistic engagement for economically and socially challenged communities.

Artists Available in Philadelphia

Jeannine Osayande & Dunya Performing Arts Company, Dance

Dunya Performing Arts Company members specialize in laying the groundwork for cultural sensitivity through intense study of the elements of various Diaspora West African drum, dance, song, storytelling, and masquerade traditions from Mali, Guinea, Senegal, The Ivory Coast, and Ghana. Their programs offer an artistic platform for participants to create, imagine, ask questions, think critically, and develop skills that can add value to their communities.

Learn more

Jeannine Osayande & Dunya Performing Arts Company

Marck "Flaco" Best, Dance

Marck “Flaco” Best has been teaching popular forms of cultural social dance since 1997, with a focus on those rhythms that allow him to embrace his Cuban heritage.

 

He is a tenured instructor with the Mt. Airy Learning Tree. After being trained by Monsieur Pierre Dulaine in his method, Flaco became one of the original teaching artists for Dancing Classrooms Philly, sister to the program in New York City used in the film Mad Hot Ballroom.

Learn more

Soul Steps, Dance

Soul Steps speaks the language of rhythm. Founded in 2005 by dancer/choreographer Maxine Lyle, Soul Steps is dedicated to celebrating the African-American tradition known as “stepping.” They have toured all over the world, bringing step everywhere. They have been featured on Good Day NY, CBS 2 News, Paris Fashion Week, and the Diesel Jeans viral video, “The A-Z of Dance.” Blending hip-hop rhythms, complex bodywork, and call and response, Soul Steps have been described in the New York Times as giving a performance that’s “electric and joyous.”

Learn more

Soul Steps

TAHIRA, Storyteller

A 2023 Delaware Division of the Arts Master Fellow in Oral Literature, TAHIRA is a storytellermusicianvocalist, and songwriter. She brings messages of couragehope, and triumph to her audience.

 

In 2021, TAHIRA was awarded the New Jersey Governor’s Award for Distinguished Service in Arts Education. Schools laud TAHIRA for her high-energyinteractive programs that make meaningful connections to young people and their academic learning.

Learn more

Queen Nur, storyteller

Karen “Queen Nur” Abdul-Malik is a nationally renowned storyteller and teaching artist. Queen has performed in venues such as the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Equity Theater on Broadway, National Black Storytelling Festival, National Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro. She has been the recipient of MidAtlantic Artist as Catalyst Grants for her work with Teens-at-Risk and Women’s Shelters as well as the National Storytelling Brimstone Grant for her innovative community-based programs.

 

Queen Nur has recorded 2 CDs. “Sweet Potato Pie and Such,” is an IParenting Media Golden Award Winner.  “Live and Storified” for teens and up was recorded at the Walt Whitman Cultural Arts Center in Camden, NJ.

Learn more

Queen Nur Telling a Story
Erik James Montgomery

Erik James Montgomery, Visual Arts

Erik James Montgomery, owner of EJM Photography, is a self-taught fine art photographer who creates relevant, thought-provoking, visually unique imagery. His viewpoint is from a photojournalistic standpoint where his imagery tells a complete story in one photograph.

 

In 2011 Erik founded the Erik James Montgomery Foundation, which is dedicated to instructing youth in the artistic development of professional photography. His students learn the fundamentals of the craft as well as being introduced to entrepreneurship. The Foundation also creates public works of art for impoverished neighborhoods in order to transform blight into beauty.

Learn more

Rebecca Kelly, Visual Arts

Rebecca Kelly is a multidisciplinary artist. She is a storyteller, textile and book artist, and curator. Her students’ Book Arts work was exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum’s Learning through Art Exhibition, and Rebecca curated the traveling exhibition of the award winning Bucks County Community College ARTMOBILE: transFORMations; Making Art with Recycled and Reused Materials. Rebecca is an experienced educator and holds a Master’s Degree in Child Development from Sarah Lawrence College.

Learn more

Rebecca Kelly
April Zay - Origami

April Zay, Visual Arts

April Zay‘s passion for art began at age three, and when April was in 4th grade, her class had a visiting artist in residence. This visit inspired her to pursue her own career as an artist, traveling to schools and working with young students. Living in many parts of the United States growing up, April has fostered a love and connection to many art forms. April is currently the owner, and founder of Hummingbird Arts Studio, taking commission work with a specialty in pet portraits. Expanding on her training as a traditional oil painter, she began creating origami jewelry, and experimenting with paper and mixed media. In 2021 April became part of the Princeton Makes artist co-op.

Learn more

Kate Marie Sclavi, Visual Arts

Kate Marie Sclavi is a Teaching Artist, Art Education Coach, and Visual Artist. For over two decades, she has led collaborative art projects for schools, museums, businesses, and other institutions as a Teaching Artist. Through a custom-designed collaboration process, she guides groups to create singular works of art that foster connection, healing, and new perspectives on organizational missions. With expertise in murals, mosaics, and giant weavings, she incorporates Socio-Emotional Learning and Arts Integrative goals while producing community-based, collaborative works of art.

Learn more

A white woman with brown curly hair wearing a red bucket hat and a red shirt.

Alex Shaw, Percussion

Alex Shaw is a Philadelphia-based percussionist, sound artist/composer, cultural producer, and arts educator working in the field for over twenty years. Intercultural, interdisciplinary collaborations and compositions merging diverse percussion traditions, vocal textures, field recordings, and digital imagination encompass his current artistic focus. He was director of Brazilian band Alô Brasil and a section leader in the award-winning Spoken Hand Percussion Orchestra for over 15 years. He has also been a guest performer with esteemed chamber ensembles Telegraph Quartet and GRAMMY-winning Imani Winds. He has also been commissioned to compose original music and sound design for film, theater and dance productions, as well as media installations. Alex is the former Artistic Director for Intercultural Journeys (2014-2020) and has curated and produced dozens of performances and cultural programs.

Learn more

2024-2025 Philadelphia Partner Schools

  • Edward Gideon School
  • Logan Elementary
  • Bluford Elementary School
  • D. Newlin Fell School
  • Northeast High School
  • Bayard Taylor Elementary School
  • William McKinley Elementary School
  • Building 21
  • Lamberton Elementary School
  • Cooperative Nursery School
  • St. Mary's Nursery School
  • St. Peter the Apostle School

  • St. Matthew School

  • St. Francis Xavier School

  • St Veronica School

  • Our Lady of Hope Catholic School

  • Drexel Neumann Academy

Counties We Serve in Eastern Pennsylvania

  • Philadelphia
  • Delaware
  • Bucks
  • Lehigh
  • Berks
  • Chester
  • Montgomery

CultureWorks Greater Philadelphia
1315 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107

Learn More

Social Media