Community Arts

The DIAL (Data-driven Initiatives through Artists Leadership) provided our In Focus: Digital Media Arts and Youth Leadership Program (or simply In Focus) – a program that provides at-risk, under-served youths of color in North Minneapolis a high quality, after-school media arts program, with a service-learning component focused on community engagement and information sharing regarding issues of concern to the participants, their peers, and the community. The artistic goals of In Focus were to: (1) Expand the access to art for communities of color and youth, (2) Leverage the talents of community artists for social betterment, and (3) Develop the artistic interest and skills for at-risk youths of color. We have successfully achieved the three goals we had designed for the program. The DIAL and our partners measured the artistic success through pre- and post-program participant surveys, interviews, focus group discussion and critiques of art projects, and regular monitoring and evaluation of In Focus activities. Several In Focus activities that worked were: Highly skilled artist-organizers provided weekly, after-school media arts training and production session to students of color in North Minneapolis. Artist-organizers demonstrated the power of the arts to positively impact communities, using media arts to engage other youth and community members. In Focus instructors, who are from similar backgrounds as the participants, shared media arts techniques and mentored the youth, to help them develop interest in the arts and positive growth. One program challenge was having the participants attend the program weekly. Although we had good overall participant numbers, weekly attendance numbers fluctuated greatly throughout the program period due to the youth’s busy schedules and competing external activities. We discussed this issue with our program partners and advisors, and decided to implement a stipend, provided by Beacons Minneapolis, for youths who regularly participated in the program. This had a positive impact on the weekly attendance numbers, and we saw more students participating on a consistent basis. Two things we will do differently in future offerings of In Focus are securing resources, internally or externally, for participant stipends; and conducing broader outreach in the school and community to enroll greater number of youth. The DIAL intends to include the youth stipends in the program budget to make it a regular part of the program’s expenses. We will also work with our partners to identify more opportunities to recruit students for the program. We believe these adjustments will improve weekly participation attendance, and lead to program growth. In Focus’ media arts training and leadership program successfully served and benefited our different intended audiences: at-risk youths of color, artists and creative professionals of color, and under-served community members. The reason for serving these specific groups is based on past programming experience and research findings that they face some of the greatest challenges and barriers in the Twin Cities. Participants: 100% of the participants were youths of color from low-income families. Artists: 100% of the artists were from communities of color. Audiences: A great majority of audiences at our presentations were people of color from under-served communities. The DIAL was also successful in meeting our goals for making our project open and accessible for all who wanted to participate. In Focus is a free program so there are no cost barriers for our target participant group of low-income youth. Also, we provide In Focus at our partner school Patrick Henry High School, which is a public high school, meaning all facilities meet ADA regulations. Furthermore, we provided transportation options (bus cards, reimbursement, etc.) to be inclusive of those who want to participate but have ride issue. Quantitatively, we trained and mentored 15+ at-risk, students of color, employed 3 artists of color, and created 4 high-quality media/communications products for the community. Qualitatively, we learned through participant interviews and surveys that 100% of the youth learned to better express themselves through media arts, found it to be a useful tool in supporting the community.