National Young Audiences Arts for Learning Week (YA Week) 2018 kicked off on March 25, 2018, and will continue through April 7, 2018. During YA Week, the YA Network raises awareness about the importance of arts-in-education around the country. The annual advocacy and awareness campaign is celebrated by the entire Network of 30 Young Audiences affiliates serving 22 states with arts integrated programming and special events in schools and community venues.
Below we highlight just a few of the upcoming events our affiliates have planned in celebration of YA Week:
Young Audiences of Western New York
http://yawny.org/
Young Audiences of Western New York (YAWNY) is kicking off YA Week with a press conference on March 27 at 10:00 am at the Buffalo & Erie County Library in Buffalo, NY. Guest speakers will include Mary Jean Jakubowski, Director of the Buffalo & Erie County Library, Paul Kubala, Erie County Deputy Commissioner of Youth Services, and Michael Weidrich, Executive Director of YAWNY. Proclamations will be issued by United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Congressman Brian Higgins, Legislator Barbara Miller-Williams, and Buffalo Common Council Member David A. Rivera. Throughout the course of YA Week, YAWNY will be offering free programming for kids all week long in the form of workshops and performances, which will be held at the library. For a complete listing of YAWNY’s YA Week events, click here: http://yawny.org/events/young-audiences-week/
Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington
http://www.ya-or.org/
Building on the success of a composer-in-residence partnership that Young Audiences fostered two years ago between experimental art-pop band AU and the Camas High School Choir, the choir will join forces with band Bright Moments for a collaborative performance that explores human technology and the notion of human progress. This concert is a collaboration of Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington, the Camas High School Choir under the direction of Ethan Chessin, and indie-rock musician and composer Kelly Pratt. Pratt has been working with Chessin and his students this school year to create an original, hour-long performance for a rock band, horns, and 200 high school singers. The work will have its debut performance during YA Week on the evening of March 27 at Camas Highschool. Then on April 13, Bright Moments and the Camas High School Choir will perform again at Portland Institute for Contemporary Art. For more information, visit: http://www.ya-or.org/blog/2018/03/bright-moments-camas-high-school-choir
Arts for Learning Indiana
https://artsforlearningindiana.org/
Arts for Learning Indiana is celebrating YA Week with a performance of “Peter and the Wolf: Cartoons and Jazz.” The work will be performed in front of an audience of 300 students in kindergarten through the fourth grade. The performance is a jazz adaptation of Prokofiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’ using cartoon characters portraying Peter, his friends, and his nemesis, the wolf. The audience will also hear stories from Dr. Seuss and other children’s authors.
Center for Arts-Inspired Learning
https://arts-inspiredlearning.org/
The Center for Arts-Inspired Learning in Cleveland, OH is celebrating YA Week with a vast array of programming. Highlights include residency programs focused on helping English Language Learner (ELL) students improve their language skills through drumming and literacy arts instruction, as well as a game design residency program focused on digital arts and technology. CAL will also be celebrating YA Week during the spring session of their ArtWorks program, an arts-based job training and college readiness program for Northeast Ohio’s 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students.
Arts for Learning Miami
http://www.a4lmiami.org/
Arts for Learning Miami will celebrate YA Week with an after-school program at Dr. Henry W. Mack/West Little River K-8 Center. This program provides students with literacy Instruction, reading intervention, homework assistance, healthy snacks, and high-quality visual and performing arts classes including music, dance, visual arts, and theatre.
Arts for Learning Connecticut
http://aflct.org/
Arts for Learning Connecticut will be sponsoring events in schools across Connecticut during YA Week. In one of their arts-integrated programs, Teaching Visual Artist Claudia Mathison will work with students at Ridge Hill Elementary in Hamden to construct carp kites. On May 5th of each year, brightly colored streamers and carp shaped kites fly all over Japan. During the program, students will use fabric, markers, and ribbon to create their own carp kite while learning about life in present day Japan.
If you are interested in learning more about or attending a YA Week event, contact:
Young Audiences Arts for Learning
Emily Lattal
Director of Marketing & Communications
T: 212-860-1563 X105, E: emily@ya.org
