LACOE E-Newsletter Feature 7/19/17

This year marks the completion of Theatre Of Hearts/Youth First (TOHYF) 18th and 19th large-scale, student driven original murals created through an ongoing collaboration with TOHYF, The Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE), and The Los Angeles County Probation Department. Since 1994, we have been working with students in LACOE schools at juvenile halls, probation camps, county community day schools, and special needs programs.

The California Arts Council, JumpstArts directly funded TOHYF for the “Wall of Humanity” at Central Juvenile Hall. TOHYF also received direct funds from the National Endowment For the Arts for the “Wall of No Success Without Struggle” at Challenger Memorial Youth Center.

From October 2016 to June 2017, 160 teenage students at Central Juvenile Hall School completed 300 hours of participation in our Literacy & Mural Project. At Christa McAuliffe School, 120 teenage students completed 252 hours.

TOHYF Artist Mentors worked alongside students to develop themes and imagery correlating to LACOE’s Road To Success Academy. Through these intensive art workshops, the “Wall of Humanity” and the “Wall of No Success Without Struggle” portray evocative blends of vivid colors, inspirational images, and motivational text that promote hope. These artworks stand as positive symbols of empowerment for the students to look beyond the mural walls and envision a brighter future.

The “Wall of Humanity” 15′ x 35′, acrylic paint, at Central Juvenile Hall.

The “Wall of No Success Without Struggle” 11′ x 30′, acrylic paint, at Challenger Memorial Youth Center.

Theatre of Hearts/Youth First is honored to announce that we have been awarded grant funding from the California Arts Council. Grants totaling $15,032,837 have been awarded to various nonprofit organizations statewide this year, the California Arts Council announced today. A total of 1,076 grantees will receive state grant funding for their work spanning the Arts Council’s 15 unique program categories, benefiting California’s students, veterans, arts educators, at-risk youth, formerly incarcerated individuals, underserved populations, and communities at large.

With support from the California Arts Council, Theatre Of Hearts/Youth First Artist-In-Residence (AIR) Program will deliver 7 multidisciplinary, standards-based AIR Programs, comprised of 168 program hours for 4 school sites in Los Angeles, in low-income neighborhoods, where quality arts instruction is limited. Each AIR Program culminates with a Work-In-Progress Presentation, in which students showcase their original artworks to peers, family members, and the community-at-large.

Thank you for all of your support.

For more information, click here.

In response to the national budget proposed by the Trump administration, the Los Angeles Times interviewed Theatre of Hearts/Youth First Executive Director Sheila Scott-Wilkinson to discuss the future of the National Endowment for the Arts and arts education in the United States.

Theatre of Hearts/Youth First stands with the National Endowment for the Arts. We have always sought to empower local communities through Artist-In-Residence programs and multidisciplinary workshops. To eliminate the NEA would be to eliminate a part of the fabric of our community and humanity.

Our journey thus far would not have been possible without the support of: California Arts Council, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Asian American Drug Abuse Program, Los Angeles Unified School District, Soledad Enrichment Action, The Annenberg Foundation, Los Angeles County Probation Department, The James Irvine Foundation, The Eisner Foundation, Preparing Achievers for Tomorrow, and initiative of the California Community Foundation, and The Flourish Foundation.