“Even the darkest night will end,
and the sun will rise.” - Victor Hugo
At every Kansas City Young Audiences (KCYA) program, in schools or at our Community School of the Arts (CSA), students are encouraged to create and persevere, building the resiliency to try, and fail, and try again to overcome challenges. Over the past few months, we’ve all faced new challenges and must redefine what it means to live and work during this extraordinary crisis.
Now, more than ever, children need the arts to fuel their minds and lift their spirits. If you believe in the power of the arts to educate and inspire, please donate to our Sunrise Fund.
Your support is critical to the health of our organization and the well-being of thousands of young people in our community.
We recently joined with National Young Audiences and arts organizations from around the country in signing on to this Joint Statement about the importance of Arts Education in today's environment. The statement has three main principles:
- “Arts education supports the social and emotional well-being of students, whether through distance learning or in person.”
- “Arts education nurtures the creation of a welcoming school environment where students can express themselves in a safe and positive way.”
- “Arts education is part of a well-rounded education for all students as understood and supported by federal and state policymakers.”
Moving forward, we are beginning to assess and implement the CDC re-opening procedures and hope to re-open the Community School of the Arts in September 2020 with a full selection of classes that will be offered in person or virtually, to meet the needs of our students.
Additionally, our In-School Programs team is working with teaching artists to develop new digital and in-person programs to address the Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) of children in schools, which we anticipate will be in high demand once schools re-open in the fall. We're also developing new virtual content that educators can add to their daily curriculum to help keep students engaged and interested in the learning process.
The name Kansas City Young Audiences will always be synonymous with quality arts education, and as in years past, we are proud to provide our 2019 Impact Report. However, with huge revenue losses from spring, summer, and possibly fall, KCYA is facing the biggest challenge of our nearly 60-year history.
We must maintain our organization’s infrastructure through this critical time of adaptation so that we can deliver new and safe programs, and ultimately emerge even stronger.
