Associated Youth Services announces 'Art on Eighth'

Art Education Program Created to Inspire At-Risk YouthDate: August 31, 2009

Kansas City, Kansas – Associated Youth Services is initiating its newest program, “Art on Eighth”. “Art on Eighth” combines the alternative school, AYS Academy, with an arts-promoting non-profit, Kaw Valley Arts & Humanities, Inc. (KVAH), and a collective of professional working artists at Pressroom Studios to integrate arts into the educational curriculum for severely at-risk adolescents. This exciting program is presented in part by the Kansas Arts Commission, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

Classes begin on September 11, with the students participating in this year’s first curriculum unit, where they are learning the principles of drawing. There will be a total of eight separate, self-contained units, each being taught by different professional artists from Kansas City, KS. Some units focus on the principles of drawing, while others will be centered on murals/public art, poetry, rap, writing, photography, and more. At the end of the school year, the students will plan the preparations for and participate in their own exhibit at the downtown Kansas City, KS Second Friday Art Walk in May, 2010.

The project serves as an innovative model that incorporates a burgeoning arts community inundated with artists willing to meet at-risk youth where they are, introduce them to basic arts principles and media as well as provide them with an opportunity to succeed in ways they never have before.

Through this project, long-term suspended youth from AYS Academy will come to learn that their community truly believes in them and has not given up on them. Indeed, they will find eight talented and dedicated artists willing to join them in their educational setting to serve as both teachers and mentors.

By partnering with professional artists, and KVAH, Wyandotte County’s official arts agency, AYS Academy will bring a high-caliber, meaningful, ongoing arts program based on educational and learning theory to some of our community’s most in-need youth.

Associated Youth Services exists to advance the social, educational and emotional health and success of youth and families. With more than 37 years of experience serving thousands of the area’s hardest-to-reach youth annually, Associated Youth Services acts as a community anchor for youth services in Wyandotte County and the State of Kansas. Programs designed to help fragile youth become successful adults include: an alternative school for middle and high school students, an outpatient drug and alcohol treatment program for teens, foster care and foster care training programs, a youth residential center, and a community health program.

The strides Associated Youth Services' youth make with the help of these five programs prove that it is not too late to break the cycles of poverty, crime and abuse. They are the inspiration that keeps Associated Youth Services committed to its mission. Please see the web-site: www.aysusa.org

Primary Contact: Debra Terrell McKenzie – (913) 831-2820 Ext: 228 or dterrell@aysusa.org

Secondary Contact: Teri Kriege – (913) 831-2820 Ext: 231 or tkriege@aysusa.org