We ART Together:
KCYA statement on race and the arts
June 5, 2020
Kansas City Young Audiences honors the lives lost as a result of systemic racism. Our hearts are with their families. We stand with them, and those who work for justice and equality.
We know the arts are integral to our healing!
For nearly 60 years, we’ve engaged children in the arts – because we recognize the power of the arts to heal, to inspire and to build community. For centuries the arts have allowed humanity to tell of suffering and joy, to help us mourn and celebrate, and to create space for us to come together as a collective people. The arts are a soothing balm for some; for others the arts are a healthy channel to express sadness, pain, or rage in words, paintings, dance and music.
The summer t-shirt we give to our students says We ART Together. For us this means:
We ART together to encourage resilience
We ART together to build self-confidence
We ART together to inspire creativity
We ART together to help children become their best selves
We ART together to make our communities better
When we art together, children have unique opportunities to explore racial and ethnic representations, and reflect and gain understanding on a community’s history and identity. When we art together we provide diverse audiences with that transformational spark that all children deserve.
As we reflect on this tumultuous time, the KCYA staff is not only recommitted to engage all children in the arts, promote creativity, and inspire success in education, but also to listen, to learn, to question, to act.
