Arts Education Month: 3 Stories of 3 Ways Art Promotes Positive Youth Development

March is National Arts Education Month, and with today's blog, we are highlighting the work of Project Create, a community-based nonprofit that promotes creative youth development through accessible arts education for children, youth and families experiencing homelessness and poverty in Washington, D.C.

At Project Create, we believe that “art has the power to transform, to illuminate, to educate, inspire and motivate” (Harvey Fierstein). Arts education complements in-school learning and serves as an important tool for positive youth development. 

We'd like to share three ways in which Project Create incorporates creative, positive youth development into our programming, and the stories of the young people served by each.

1) LUWANN: Art as Education

In the face of the urgent needs of our students, art makes a difference. We believe that “arts education is not a flower, but a wrench” (Rachel Goslins, President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities). 

A study by the National Endowment for the Arts found that at-risk kids exposed to the arts had better academic outcomes, higher career goals, and greater civic engagement. Thus, they contribute more to their communities, achieve more themselves, and have higher aspirations and hope—all from engaging in art! This conclusion is as clear in practice as it is in the research. At Project Create, we notice that our students are trying harder in school.

Sometimes Luwann brings her homework to our after-school open studio; she seeks help with challenging math problems, or asks one of our interns to quiz her on spelling words. When she succeeds at school, Luwann brings her A papers to us to celebrate. It is rewarding to watch Luwann’s growing commitment to her schoolwork. We love it that art is the hook that draws Lawann, a budding illustrator, into the Project Create studio, and once there, she finds the support she needs to succeed at school.

Reflections of a Museum Educator

Rachel Trinkley has worked as a museum educator for over a decade in the Midwest and DC. She is currently Director of Education for Explore! Children’s Museum of Washington, DC, a start-up children’s museum in the district with plans to open in the Fort Totten neighborhood in the coming years.

I recently spent some time with colleagues preparing for an upcoming educators’ conference at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, where I was struck by a painting titled Braceros, by Domingo Ulloa.

Later I stood by myself in front of the work for I don’t know how long - writing down what I saw, thought, and wondered. This experience - in the midst of my day-to-day work of trying to help establish a children’s museum in the district - was a much-needed reminder about the power of art.