By Tracey Hartmann
While leaders of multipurpose out-of-school time (OST) organizations strive to offer a variety of activities to young people, they naturally lean toward the core programs for which their organizations are best known, such as athletics, academic support, or leadership development.
Without intentional focus, arts programs often default to “arts and crafts” activities rather than creative youth development, and often miss out on engaging young people who would like to explore the arts.
To increase the quality of these programs and meaningfully engage youth, organizations need more than just a talented teaching artist or a new curriculum—they require commitment from leadership.
The Youth Arts Initiative (YAI), funded by The Wallace Foundation and implemented by Boys & Girls Clubs of America, aimed to address the gap in access to high-quality arts. Research from The Wallace Foundation codified key practices for high-quality arts programs into 10 Principles for High-Quality Arts Programs.
Research for Action and McClanahan Associates served as the research partners for YAI. Drawing from our learnings, we are publishing mini-briefs that explore each of the 10 Principles and offer actionable, practical strategies to implement youth arts programs in multipurpose out-of-school time settings.
In this mini-brief, we focus on Principle 2: Executive Commitment.
Stay tuned for the next mini-brief in our series!