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AGM Members and Partners
Every day, in cities and towns throughout
Massachusetts, art is transforming the lives of
vulnerable young people. Yet few public dollars are
awarded to support art programs for teenagers.
Nevertheless, our state has a remarkable
concentration of high-quality organizations that are
doing the intensive, long-term work of engaging
young people in life-changing experiences with the
arts.
In the articles that follow, a number of these
programs and their supporters offer their
perspectives on what it takes to survive and thrive in
this important but precariously funded sector. Donors
and service providers alike tend to take part in
dynamic networks that favor collaboration and
partnerships. Grantmakers are as creative and
resourceful as their grantees in devising innovative
models to keep these services alive.
Many of you participated in the 2006 Grantmakers in
the Arts Conference held last month in Boston.
Nationwide, grantmakers are striving to identify the
most effective strategies for private sector donors
who seek to bridge the gap in public support. This
issue points out some approaches that work.
As always, please contact AGM Communications
Director Gail
Pinkham with your feedback.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to wish you
all a
joyous holiday season and Happy New Year.
- Ron Ancrum, President, Associated
Grant Makers
| Teen DJs and Tour Guides Highlight Asian-American Experience |
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The sole Asian-American radio program serving
Greater Boston is planned and produced by a group
of teenagers. Once a week, the high school students
broadcast their live, two-hour show, "Chinatown
Youth Radio Project", from the Medford studio of
Tufts University/Medford Community Radio (WMFO
91.5 FM).
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| Middle School Students Explore Arts in the Berkshires |
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From June to August, 400 middle-school students
from more than 30 Massachusetts communities spend
a week in the Berkshires immersed in music, visual
art, theater, and dance. Sponsored by the Boston
Symphony Orchestra (BSO), Days in the Arts
(DARTS) hosts about 50 students per week for eight
weeks at the summer home of the BSO in
Tanglewood.
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| Youth Arts Programs Gain Strength through Collaboration |
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From the Actors' Shakespeare Project to ZUMIX (a
music program in East Boston), 30 arts organizations
serving Greater Boston youth are finding strength in
numbers through ARTWorks for Kids. An initiative of
the Hunt Alternatives Fund, ARTWorks for Kids offers
an innovative model of youth arts philanthropy based
on close collaboration among grantees and donors.
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| Picking Up the Tab for Youth Arts Programs |
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Plenty of studies have documented the impacts of
engaging at-risk youth in the arts: programs that
meet the developmental and creative needs of young
people reduce drop-out and recidivism rates, narrow
achievement gaps, and bridge social divides. Yet
arts programs serving the state’s most vulnerable
youth- at-risk adolescents -face an uphill struggle to
remain solvent and continue their labor-intensive
work.
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| RAW Power Ignites Kids in Lynn to Grow as Artists and Individuals |
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Raw Art Works (RAW) is a creative refuge for at-risk
children and teenagers in the heart of Lynn, a city
that ranks among the state's worst in poverty,
substance abuse and crime. Lynn’s young grow as
artists and individuals at RAW. Created and led by
staff members who are both therapists and working
artists, RAW's projects and long-term groups breed
insight as well as artistic accomplishment.
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| City's Young Artists Connect in Copley Square |
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Every community needs a meeting place. Young
artists of Greater Boston convene in the heart of the
city. Amid the centuries-old brownstones of Copley
Square, Cloud Place provides non-profit youth arts
programs with professional-grade facilities to develop
and showcase their work in dance, music, theater,
media and visual arts.
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IN THIS ISSUE: Learn about innovative programs and funders of youth in the arts. |
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