Arts Access

Through this focused arts access opportunity, Free Arts Minnesota's goal was to deepen its relationship with residential treatment centers and youth who live there. The program caused us to work more closely than ever with our three partner residential centers, in order to provide a transformative experience to the youth housed there. We evaluated our results through surveys for youth participants and social service agency staff. We also held evaluation meetings with the Northern Clay Center staff, Free Arts staff and teaching artists to evaluate the quality of the program. Our evaluations affirmed the effectiveness of the program in deepening relationships with our partner agencies, while also engaging the youth in creative thinking and creative expression. 2: Our goal was to bring typically inaccessible ceramic art experiences to 80 at-risk youth who often cannot leave their residential treatment settings. Youth in these residential treatment facilities would have no access to the arts without Free Arts programs. Free Arts Minnesota staff worked closely with social service agency staff to strategize about youth engagement and participation. In this case, 66 youth, who would not have otherwise had the opportunity to participate in a ceramics program, received a quality arts experience and displayed their sculptures at the Northern Clay Center. Results were evaluated through a combination of surveys for youth participants and social service agency staff participants. Also, evaluation meetings with the Northern Clay Center staff, Free Arts staff and teaching artists were used to evaluate the quality of the program. Our evaluations affirmed the effectiveness of the program in engaging youth in the fundamentals of ceramics.