Youth in Arts

Youth in Arts is a non-profit organization that provides visual and performing arts instruction to public and private school students and enriches the community with cultural events. Youth in Arts has been providing arts education to students in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1970, with a concentration in Marin and Sonoma counties. It is based in San Rafael, Ca. The Artists in Schools program offers schools supplies and help with integrating art into lesson plans. These lessons from different artists include many different asspects of arts education. One example is a dance professional teaching hip-hop to elementary school kids as part of a physical education program, or a musician teaching kindergarteners songs, or an artist teaching middle school kids to draw the perfectly defined muscle in science class. It seems to be working.

An independent evaluation of the Artists in Schools program, funded by a grant from the California Arts Council, found that three-quarters of the students participating showed a more positive attitude toward learning in an arts-inclusive classroom. Usually, schools pay what they can afford to, up to the full cost of $4,500 USD.

In addition to the Artists in Schools program, Youth in Arts operates a Youth in Arts Presents, a series that brings 25 performances to thousands of Marin and Sonoma county students; VSA arts, Vision Strength and Accessibility (formerly called Very Special Arts) a special-needs art education program that serves 500 students ages 3 to 21; 'Til Dawn, a teen a cappella program, and the Italian Street Painting Festival, which celebrated its 14th anniversary this year . For the Italian Street Painting Festival, which takes place in front of Mission San Rafael Arcangel, hundreds of Madonnari (street painters) transform the streets of San Rafael into a color-splashed gallery for 60,000 visitors each year. It usually takes place the first or second weekend in June. It is one of the largest street painting festivals of its kind in the country.