Fort Bend ARTreach

ARTreach summer camp introduces art, business and a healthy lifestyle to children at risk in Fort Bend County
A unique day camp being held at the Katy Family YMCA

Fort Bend County, Texas – ARTreach and the Katy Family YMCA are teaming to introduce Art and Business combined with Health and Fitness in a unique summer camp benefiting youth in Fort Bend County Project L.E.A.P. (Leadership- Education-Action Program).

This ARTreach Program is offered as a one week day camp serving youth at risk ages 14-17 and in Fort Bend County Project L.E.A.P. (Leadership Education Action Program). It introduces graphic design and screen printing combined with marketing techniques associated with the wholesale tee-shirt industry. The ARTreach Art and Business Program applies the skills needed for living in the real world and is taught by professional artist, Danny Russo of Young Audiences of Houston.

Project L.E.A.P. students will learn basic screen printing techniques and be given an opportunity to create an original line of tee-shirts and fitness totes. The participants will learn how to cut and produce stencils and burn images using lamps and light-sensitive emulsion on silk screens to create a number of designs that can be reproduced and sold.  The Katy Family YMCA will be supporting additional camp activities for the youth that focus on health and fitness. This ARTreach Program at the Katy Family YMCA is designed to incorporate health, education, business and the arts to promote productive, creative and healthy lifestyles.

The ARTreach Art & Business Program at the Katy Family YMCA is made possible thanks to the Fort Bend Partnership for Youth, Young Audiences of Houston–Imagine. Create. Educate. Tradition Bank of Katy- Local answers.

Fort Bend- Sugar Land TX- ARTreach is expanding programs serving children at risk in the Greater Fort Bend County area, thanks to a partnership with Young Audiences of Houston, and generous donations by community-involved corporations like Baker Petrolite, with main offices in Sugar Land.

ARTreach www.artreachonline.org  and Young Audiences of Houston www.yahouston.org are collaborating to bring Judy Kang, professional violinist from New York and on tour in Houston in February, to the 5th grade students at Mission West Elementary School in Fort Bend ISD. 

This is an ARTreach program that supports equal access to the arts in the Fort Bend school districts. ARTreach supports campuses with little or no PTA involvement, and will provide volunteers and funds to bring cultural arts and fine art assemblies to under-served student populations.  ARTreach seeks donations from local businesses and corporations and partners with art organizations like Young Audiences of Houston to help make sure no child is left behind in the arts.

Judy Kang’s presentation is made possible thanks to Young Audience of Houston Assistance Fund, The Fort Bend Partnership for Youth, and Baker Petrolite, a division of Baker Hughes Incorporated

Mission West Elementary located at 7325 Clodine-Reddick Road, Houston TX 77083. Judy Kang’s Presentation, “Me and My Violin” will be held on February 4th at 10:30 a.m. 

By introducing the art of mobile making! 

Creating balance. This is a pretty simple idea for a mobile making artist like Judy Malone-Stein of Young Audiences of Houston.  Malone-Stein visited the Fort Bend County Juvenile Probation Department this month to show the youth in detention how to make “Art that Moves” as inspired by the work of Alexander Calder.

The students not only had a chance to learn about the work of a famous artist, but they also discovered through Judy’s artistic example- that for every action there is a reaction, with every choice comes a consequence, and the best lesson of all, because these youth are going through a very hard time in their lives right now, was the reminder that for every down there is always an up!
 
Learning life lessons through the art of mobile making? This engaging interactive workshop introduced science and geometry as well as basic social and life skills as only a creative artist could do it… Judy Malone-Stein teaches this workshop as an opportunity to learn about mobile making through the eyes of an artist named Alexander Calder. Her workshop is available through Young Audiences of Houston and can be booked as a residency program available to kids of all ages.  Visit www.yahouston.org to learn more.

Judy Malone-Stein and her “Art that Moves” Workshop at Fort Bend County Juvenile Probation Department was made possible by ARTreach in collaboration with Young Audiences of Houston and the Fort Bend Partnerships for Youth. 

Baker Petrolite donated $1000 to ARTreach to help bring programs to children in need in the Greater Fort Bend County area. Several projects serving children at risk in the Fort Bend Independent School District and abused and abandoned children at the DePelchin Center will be initiated this year thanks to the generosity of this division of Baker Hughes headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas.

Please return for updates about these special projects.

Did you know ARTreach is a non profit organization that sends professional teaching artists into juvenile detention centers to teach art, dance and music to the youth behind the bars?

The ARTreach artists report that every time they go, the majority of the youth say they have not painted since kindergarten, they have never sung in a school choir, they have never danced, played an instrument, or performed on stage.

Does this mean that kids that are not exposed to the arts enough when they are young grow up to be juvenile delinquents?

Could be, but maybe the better question is - why is there an entire population of children in Fort Bend County that never experience the arts outside of what they were mildly exposed to in elementary school?

The elementary schools do what they can, by fitting in a weekly rotation of art and music in-between PE, but by middle school, the fine arts are an elective, and if a child has not been given enough opportunities to feel successful in the arts, then the fine arts are not the electives they feel compelled to choose.

The main reason art might not be a part of a child’s life when he is young will be related to economics, and family priorities.   Ballet classes and private art lessons are expensive for one thing. There are not many quality free or affordable after-school art and music programs readily available or accessible to single working parents or the financially disadvantaged.

Art is a tremendous asset that our society in general appreciates and values. Yet not all families are in a position financially to afford to nurture their child’s artistic inclinations, and there are very few avenues to the arts that are available to our children being left behind.

What does equal access to the Arts mean?

It is widely accepted that the arts, whether dance, music, drawing, or painting provides some of the most effective, engaging and creative methods of mental, emotional and physical stimulation out there. The arts stimulate the overall creative thinking process! It is easy to imagine that the most creative thinking children will grow up to be the most creative thinking adults. We should wonder then, if ART can be so crucial to a child’s success, why is it not available and accessible to all people especially those coming from a family with limited resources? Kids with limited resources are the ones that need to be the most creative in order to succeed! 

The kids that are being left behind in the arts are the same kids being left behind in general. Whether you think socio-economics plays a role, or parental neglect, these are same children who are at risk of academic failure, dropping out of high school, taking drugs, committing crimes, ending up in prison system or otherwise supported by the welfare system.

If you want to encourage a generation of at risk children to creatively pull themselves up from an impoverished or abusive family cycle, then our community needs to better equip our children at risk with the tools to think creatively - and that means artistically. The arts can empower a child to envision a better future, and then creatively construct a more positive life for themselves.  The community can help by making a donation to ARTreach supporting our Fort Bend County Projects, or if you are an artist, volunteer to share your talent teaching art, music or dance to a child at risk.

Because ART Works!

Call 281-392-5341 to become involved as a volunteer, or make a donation supporting troubled youth in Fort Bend County

Beat, Bang and Believe
Artist Joseph Dixon visits youth at the Fort Bend County Juvenile Probation Department
ARTreach has joined forces with Young Audiences of Houston to bring the youth in the Fort Bend County Juvenile Probation Department’s detention center a special opportunity to Beat, Bang and Believe!

This is a percussion workshop that utilizes found objects like paint buckets and plastic tubs to provide the simple drum rudiments needed to create music, using the elements and principle of tempo, dynamics, rhythm, and pattern.

Joseph Dixon is a professional drummer and teaching artist from Young Audiences of Houston. He designed this workshop for the Fort Bend County Probation Department to teach the youth traditional African rhythms while engaged in a community drum circle. The workshop is designed to teach the value of creative self-expression, while building necessary social skills supporting team work.

This was an ARTreach project made possible thanks to Fort Bend Partnership for Youth and Young Audiences of Houston.

Visual Artist and Speaker visit the Juvenile Detention Center

Artist Vickie McMillan created a special ARTreach Christmas gift for the youth at the Fort Bend County Probation Department Detention Center. While her husband, evangelist and speaker Chad McMillan gave a sermon about understanding God’s greater plan, Vickie painted an inspired work of art- a beautiful cross that embraced words offering hope, peace of mind, and understanding. This painting is on display at the Fort Bend County Probation Department and available for exhibitions at our ARTreach church partner locations this spring.

Baker Petrolite

Bud Childers

Extreme Technologies, Inc.

Houston Endowment, Inc.

Fort Bend Partnership for Youth

Fort Bend ISD

John and Cynthia Zerwas

Mary Gready

Young Audiences of Houston

Friends of Fort Bend ARTreach

Jeff Cook

Don Johnson

Glenn Hegar

Law Offices of David Showalter LLP