Community Taiko for BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ Youth
TaikoArts Midwest seeks funding to bring the healing, empowering, and community building benefits of taiko drumming to BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and homeless youth communities in Minneapolis. We will partner with schools and nonprofits to best serve each community. We will use funds to staff a Community Outreach Director position, a taiko instructor assistant, and a mental health/youth behaviorial specialist to lead the programming.
2022-2023 Cultural Heritage and Community Identity Grants - Spring 2022
Create and foster 3 initial community partnerships with onsite champions.
Create 3 sites of ongoing taiko classes or activities.
Purchase one set of drums dedicated to the youth programming.
Hold at least 50 taiko classes or events.
Engage over 100 youth participants directly.
Integrate mental health support along with arts programming for the first time in this organization's history.
We will use class & event attendance and direct feedback (participants, partner orgs, community members, staff) to evaluate our program.
We have launched programs with Anderson Middle School, Bancroft Elementary, Global Arts Elementary, Girls & Boys club at Phelps Community Center, and the Avenues for Youth center. We are finding that the pandemic has resulted in more challenging behavior management with students, and we have partnered with teachers, staff, and adjusted our curriculum accordingly. We find that the most effective method is to first connect and engage with them, gain trust, and then introduce more of the taiko skills based work.; We have launched programs with Anderson Middle School, Bancroft Elementary, Global Arts Elementary, Girls & Boys club at Phelps Community Center, and the Avenues for Youth center. We are finding that the pandemic has resulted in more challenging behavior management with students, and we have partnered with teachers, staff, and adjusted our curriculum accordingly. We find that the most effective method is to first connect and engage with them, gain trust, and then introduce more of the taiko skills based work.
The main changes are that we have received more and more requests to bring our programming to other schools, and have to now figure out how to prioritize resources as we have more opportunities than we can staff. We have also taken efforts this summer to start documenting our curriculum.
We leveraged a NIGP grant as well that helped pay for staffing and drums - total amount was $40K.. We also leveraged funding from Propel NIGP program $40K and Carlson Family Foundation $5K.
Katie Hae Leo
Hailey Gabriel
Liz Kane
Pinggy Stolee
Rick Shiomi
Jennifer Weir; Tracee Hummel Tanabe
Rick Shiomi
Hailey Gabriel
Elizabeth Kane
Jennifer Weir
Maribel Stolee
Joshua Vang
Wesley Mouri
Dayna Martinez
Sarah Senseman