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This study by Research for Action and McClanahan Associates finds that a large, national, multidisciplinary, youth-serving organization can set up high-quality arts programs, the likes of which one would normally find in smaller, more specialized organizations.
The study explores the efforts of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA), a federation of more than 4,000 clubhouses around the country, in the first three years of Wallace’s Youth Arts Initiative. The initiative is based on Something to Say, a 2013 study of successful arts-focused organizations that identified 10 principles their programs appear to share. BGCA, the main grantee in the initiative, is working to determine whether a much larger, generalist organization can use Something to Say’s principles to establish high-quality arts programs of its own.
BGCA introduced arts programs in clubhouses in three Midwestern cities: Milwaukee and Green Bay, Wis., and nearby St. Cloud, Minn. These clubhouses worked to implement each of the Something to Say principles, hiring professional teaching artists, establishing dedicated studios and planning for high-profile culminating events, among other activities. Three years later, researchers found that each of the new programs met all the Something to Say principles.
Source: Research for Action
Research shows that involvement in the arts promotes positive youth development, yet far too few children from low-income homes have access to high-quality arts education. These children are about half as likely to participate in arts programs as youth from more affluent families, and when they do, they are typically encouraged to make crafts rather than create unique work or develop formative artistic skills."