Young Audiences Arts for Learning is pleased to congratulate YA Affiliate Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington on its selection to receive an Art Works grant award from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for the organization’s Teaching Artist Studio (TA Studio) program.
Founded in 2013, the TA Studio is a professional development initiative serving teaching artists in Oregon and SW Washington. The program’s facilitators work with professional teaching artists from all disciplines and media—performing, visual, literary, digital, and more—to empower them in their practice and enhance their impact on students’ lives and education. TA Studio is the only in-depth, teaching artist–focused professional development offering in Oregon. The program addresses a critical need in the community for training for underserved arts educators, and builds on other local arts education training efforts.
The award is part of the NEA’s first major funding announcement for fiscal year 2018. The Art Works category is the NEA’s largest funding category and supports projects that focus on the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and/or the strengthening of communities through the arts.
“The National Endowment for the Arts is a gold standard for quality arts education programs,” said Cary Clarke, Executive Director of Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington. “We are deeply honored to be recognized with an NEA Art Works grant. This investment in our Teaching Artist Studio program will help teaching artists throughout our region grow as educators and attain a new level of excellence in meeting the diverse arts learning needs of all children in our region.”
“This federal funding will leverage the generous support of our local community and ensure that more young people derive the transformative benefits of creativity in their classrooms,” said Clarke. “The impact in our region—and in kids’ and artists' lives—will be profound.”
For more information on Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington and the TA Studio, visit www.ya-or.org.
For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.
