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Two Kentucky organizations are among 50 finalists for the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Awards.
The awards, supported by the President’s Council on Arts and Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, recognize outstanding creative youth development programs across the country for their work in providing excellent arts and humanities learning opportunities to young people. The 2017 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award Finalists reflect the diversity of disciplines and settings of these exceptional creative youth development programs that are taking place from coast to coast.
Lexington’s Central Music Academy, which has provided free musical learning opportunities to more than 900 financially disadvantaged students since 2005, is one of the Kentucky-based finalists. The academy is also one of the Kentucky Arts Council’s Kentucky Arts Partnership organizations.
“I know what a big honor it is to be named a national finalist for this award, and we were over the moon,” said Erin Walker Bliss, Central Music Academy’s director. “I think we’ve had great results giving students a musical education at CMA. It’s yielded a lot of accomplishments. We’ve had students accepted into SCAPA (Lexington’s School for the Creative and Performing Arts); Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra; and district honor bands, orchestras and choirs.
“We’re also proud of our students’ nonmusical accomplishments. We’ve had 100 percent of our seniors graduate from their respective high schools, and 98 percent have gone on to college,” Walker Bliss said. “That’s a big deal because some of them are first generation college students.”
The Louisville Free Public Library’s English Conversation Club was another Kentucky Finalist for the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Awards. The club provides a relaxed atmosphere in which non-native speakers practice conversational English. Sophie Maier, the immigrant services librarian at the library system’s Iroquois Park branch, said the club started as a service for adults, but evolved to include children.
“We realized a lot of women couldn’t access the English Conversation Club because they have babies and children they were taking care of,” Maier said. “We got out word that babies and children were welcome. With children came teenagers, and they became vital to the program. Some teens, who came here at a younger age, learned to speak English fluently. Now they serve as helpers to our group’s newcomers.”
For the teens who are using the program as a learning opportunity, Maier says the experience goes beyond the acquisition of English.
“It’s not just language learning,” she said. “We might have them work on questions to push them into critical thought, and in some countries, that’s not part of the education system.”
Since the club’s inception in 2004, it has extended to the Louisville Free Public Library’s main downtown branch and throughout the system.
The award winners will be announced this fall.
To be considered for a National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, organizations must:
- Operate as a program for children and youth outside of the school day;
- Use one or more disciplines of the arts or the humanities as the core content of its program(s);
- Concentrate on children and youth who live in family and community circumstances that limit their opportunities — underserved children and youth are the primary participants in the program;
- Involve children and youth as active participants in the arts or humanities experience;
- Provide participants with ongoing, regularly scheduled sessions;
- Integrate arts or humanities education programs with youth development goals (e.g., enhanced leadership skills, self-confidence, and peer relations);
- Have been operational for a minimum of five years;
- Be a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, unit of state or local government, or federally recognized tribal community or tribe; and
- Be in good standing if a federal grant recipient.
The Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, fosters environments for Kentuckians to value, participate in and benefit from the arts. Kentucky Arts Council funding is provided by the Kentucky General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Kentucky students are much more media literate than they are given credit for, said Bighill media artist Bob Martin. Martin is a teaching artist in the media arts category in the Kentucky Arts Council’s adjudicated Teaching Artists Directory.
“They want to be witnessed. They have a lot to offer regarding how they see our society,” Martin said. “Just about every young person has a camera in their pocket. Storytelling through social media is a wonderful opportunity to engage them.”
Those opportunities will become plentiful with more media artists to share their knowledge and experience, he said. To achieve that, the arts council is looking for media artists to add to the council’s Teaching Artists Directory.
“Media, by definition, is the plural of medium, and it’s through using multiple media that are evolving, adapting and unfolding that we get our stories across,” Martin said. “It’s up to us to fill the need of students for media art instruction, and help young people engage critically with art through media.”
Martin, who works regionally in theater and film, has been a teaching artist in the directory for about three years. Bringing media arts lessons to Kentucky students through the residencies offered through the arts council’s Teaching Art Together program is a source of satisfaction for him, and he said he thinks his fellow media artists will find the same level of fulfillment.
“I believe in the state creating spaces for artists to be able to make a difference in their communities as performing or teaching artists,” Martin said. “It’s a valuable use of state resources to say we value artmaking, creation and creative visioning as an investment strategy. I appreciate participating in that.”
The application deadline for the Teaching Artists Directory is April 13.
For more information or to apply, visit the Teaching Artists Directory program page of the arts council website, or contact Jean St. John, arts council education director, at jean.stjohn@ky.gov or 502-892-3124.
The Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, fosters environments for Kentuckians to value, participate in and benefit from the arts. Kentucky Arts Council funding is provided by the Kentucky General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The work of 24 Kentucky artists will grace the hallways of the Capitol Annex beginning Feb. 6.
The Kentucky Arts Council exhibit “Kentucky Visions at the Capitol” will be on display 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, from Feb. 6 through March 31 at the Annex. The exhibit features 58 individual pieces by Kentucky Crafted artists and Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship recipients.
“Longtime legislators have always remarked how much they look forward to hosting ‘Visions’ at the Annex, but there are new legislators joining the General Assembly this session who will discover outstanding artwork by Kentucky’s finest artists,” said Lydia Bailey Brown, arts council executive director. “With the corps of artists selected for this exhibit, Kentucky’s arts community is putting its best foot forward.”
Michael McCardwell, a 1998 recipient of an Al Smith Fellowship and current Kentucky Crafted artist, has three pieces in this year’s exhibit: “My Town,” “Funny Drawing” and “APDYF,” all in colored ink. McCardwell said he values arts council exhibits like “Visions” as opportunities for artists to stretch their creative legs.
“Art can involve creativity and some experiments in art are not successful,” McCardwell said. “But one needs the freedom to try new things and the Kentucky Arts Council provides that support, both as an agency and through the individual staff members who take a personal interest in my work.
“It’s an honor to be in any show, and having my work in this show, one that represents work from artists across the state, makes an artist feel that their work is valued by our government.”
The artists represented in the exhibit, their media and county of residence include:
- Philis Alvic, fibers, Fayette
- Bill Berryman, graphite, Clark *
- Patricia Brock, photography, Jefferson
- Marianne Brown, ceramic, Anderson
- Jim Cantrell, watercolor/oil on canvas, Nelson
- Steve Clay, watercolor, Barren *
- Kathleen Conroy, scratchboard, Henry *
- Ray Daughtery, photography, Scott *
- Bruce Frank, photography, Scott
- Timothy Gold, oils, Kenton
- Gary Graham, wood, Fayette *
- Elsie Harris, acrylic on canvas, Fayette
- Eva King, paper, Calloway
- Michael McCardwell, colored ink, Shelby
- Gary Mesa-Gaido, photography on aluminum, Rowan
- Michael Nichols, silverpoint on paper, Warren *
- Kathleen O’Brien, watercolor, drawing collage, Mercer
- Laura Poulette, watercolor, Madison *
- Cecila Ridge, fibers, Jefferson
- Lacey Roberts, fibers, Franklin *
- Judy Rosati, hand-colored photography, Jefferson
- Sarah Spradlin, oils and acrylic, Bourbon
- Jason Sturgill, mixed media, Fayette *
- Sharon Tesser, fibers, Jefferson *
* First time exhibiting in “Kentucky Visions at the Capitol.”
Visit the Kentucky Arts Council website for a slideshow of the work on exhibit.
“Funny Drawing” (ink) by Michael McCardwell, Kentucky Crafted artist and Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship recipient. The work of McCardwell and 23 other Kentucky artists will be on display Feb. 6-March 31 in the Kentucky Arts Council’s “Kentucky Visions at the Capitol” exhibit at the Capitol Annex in Frankfort.
For more information about “Kentucky Visions at the Capitol,” contact Kate Sprengnether, arts council public art and design director, at kate.sprengnether@ky.gov or 502-892-3111.
