PROGRAMS
Programs & Activities
Since youth are part of larger systems in their community that affect their potential, Access Art delivers services to children and families that span both the school day and the out of school time hours. Access Art serves the Baltimore community through:
1. Award Winning After School Art Programs
2. Leadership Development Initiatives
3. Community and School based Engagement Strategies and Partnerships
4. Neighborhood Art Projects.
Our main programming component is the Youthlight Art & Media Project, an intensive, year long program which facilitates young people to explore and engage in a number of artistic disciplines including: sculpture, digital photography, mosaics, silk screening, painting, drawing, mural creation, and media literacy. We currently have year round programs in Morrell Park serving elementary middle and high school youth, and at Lyndhurst Elementary Community School in Edmonson Village serving grades K-5.Partnerships with schools, non-profits and other organizations increase the reach of Access Art across the city through short and long term art and media workshops.
AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS
To foster youth leadership, students in our programs are engaged in a variety of leadership levels appropriate to their age. Youth in our Middle School Program enter the Youth Leadership Class after one year, and work towards becoming "Youth Assistants" (YAs). "YAs" are given explicit art and leadership goals and given the opportunity to demonstrate their proficiency around these challenges earning ‘badges’ for their accomplishments. YAs are also evaluated daily on the criteria of participation, initiative, responsibility, positive attitude, and setting an example. At the end of each semester they can earn a monetary stipend based on their daily evaluations.
YOUTH Leadership
Access Art is a community schools lead partner in Morrell Park and works closely with Morrell Park Elementary Middle School through our Community School Coordinator to improve school climate, promote student achievement, connect parents to needed resources, and assist families to remove the barriers that keep students from attending school regularly. The combination of our out-of-school programs and the relationship with the school help support youth to reduce truancy, stay in school, be engaged in their community, and feel hopeful about their future.
COMMUNITY SCHOOLs
lead partner
Access Art leverages and coordinates resources, funding, and projects that support community enhancement through creativity. These projects beautify and improve the quality of life in the community through mural creation, vacant lot restoration, and neighborhood art projects.
COMMUNITY
ART
Our Approach
Access Art’s staff is consistently reevaluating curriculum to maintain an “elegant problem” for our youth by creating an age appropriate learning dynamic which maintains a stimulating environment that challenges, supports, and facilitates a feeling of accomplishment. Through a strong curricular collaborative process and weekly staff meetings to contemplate the challenges of our individual youth, Access Art staff maintains a rigorous understanding of the demands each child is facing.To support the diverse learning styles of our youth, Access Art staff utilize practices of Universal Design including enhanced visual supports and adapting art tools and techniques, incorporate diversified learning strategies within lesson plans, implement specific daily behavior plans for youth with input from parents, and build attendance and engagement strategies with student’s local school and teachers.