Young Audiences of Maryland, Inc.

1. Increase direct student access to the arts through subsidized, affordable programs. We strive to cover the gap between what schools can afford to pay and what professional artists need to earn by actively raising funds to subsidize programs for low-income communities.
2. Help artists play a more meaningful role in education through training and support. Our Teaching Artist Institute helps professional artists develop fluency in the state curriculum and Common Core Standards – including Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) skills – as well as arts-integration strategies.
3. Increase the use of arts integration in the classroom. Young Audiences offers a range of professional development opportunities for educators, including professional development workshops, residencies, and long-term school and district partnerships. Our work in this field helps to ensure that teachers can implement arts-integration techniques, with or without the presence of a professional teaching artist, in order to inspire and motivate their students.

Young Audiences' mission is to transform the lives and education of our youth through the arts by connecting educators, professional artists, and communities. Our mission-aligned organizational goals are intended to ensure that we are relentlessly working towards our vision that one day, all students will have the opportunity to imagine, create, and realize their full potential through the arts.

To achieve these goals, we provide services that enhance student learning in, through, and about the arts, either directly or indirectly, including:

• Assemblies, residencies, and standalone workshops that introduce students to different cultures and art forms, while encouraging them to pursue their curiosities and shape their own learning.
• Professional development for educators and artists in the use of arts integration as a powerful, dynamic approach to teaching and assessment that reaches more students where they are.
• Customized programming for school districts to help them reach their goals – from providing the resources and environment for students to meet high academic standards to transforming teacher practice and learning spaces.

In 1950, Young Audiences founder Nina Collier hosted a well-known violinist, Yehudi Menuhin, to play for and talk with a group of children in her Baltimore home. Noticing how much the children enjoyed the experience, Ms. Collier organized a series of 20 chamber music concerts for Baltimore City elementary students. Young Audiences has since grown to encompass dozens of chapters, which provide a wide range of arts and education services in more than half of U.S. states. Collectively, the network brings programming to more than five million students every year.

Young Audiences of Maryland has served its community for nearly 70 years, evolving from an assembly provider in Baltimore City to a champion of increased student access to high quality, arts-based learning experiences throughout the state.

In the past decade, YA has experienced rapid growth: in FY06, with a budget of just over $800,000, we delivered 930 assembly services. In FY19, we delivered 19,873 workshops, assemblies, and summer learning opportunities to students, in addition to 2,036 teacher and artist development workshops. In total, we provided services to over 173,000 students across Maryland in 2018-19. Our FY20 budget is $7.5 million.

Maryland has a vibrant arts and culture landscape, and we are proud to be a part of it. Where other organizations focus narrowly on the arts, Young Audiences is designing and evaluating arts integration programs that transform educational outcomes and impact teacher practice. In addition to direct student services, we also address the lack of arts in education by reaching teachers, administrators, and teaching artists. Our residencies and professional development programs give teachers arts integration skills -- which reach students with a variety of learning preferences and instill an excitement for learning -- that will last long after our teaching artists have left the school building.

Last year, Young Audiences reached over 173,000 students across Maryland. In total, we provided more than 496,000 learning hours in, through, and about the arts. In addition to our regular services, which include residencies and assemblies, artist training, and teacher professional development, we are proud of our new and growing initiatives, which are creating new opportunities for Maryland students to learn in, through, and about the arts.

In 2018, Young Audiences nearly doubled the Summer Arts & Learning Academy in size to serve 2,129 students at eight sites across Baltimore City. The Academy is a free, five week, full-day program, developed in partnership with Baltimore City Public Schools, for elementary students attending Title I Baltimore City schools. During the Academy, students participate in daily arts-integrated math and literacy lessons that are co-taught by a professional teaching artist and a certified teacher. Students also get to choose from a variety of arts, robotics, and athletics enrichment opportunities.

Other highlights from the 2018-19 year include:

Judy Center Partnership | In 2019, Young Audiences began partnering with Baltimore City Judy Centers to provide professional development for affiliated child care practitioners. Judy Centers are responsible for providing wrap-around services to support the development of children from birth through age five in their communities. These services include providing professional development for the child care practitioners in their community. Young Audiences is providing a variety of professional development opportunities for the Centers and their communities, including group workshops and residencies with embedded professional development. Other components of the partnership include workshops around the arts and play for parents and caregivers, as well as embedded professional development residencies for the schools where the participating Centers are located.

Arts Empowered Minds Initiative | The Initiative is a collective impact project involving several partners, including Anne Arundel County Public Schools. The project utilizes the arts to improve school achievement, parent involvement, and student engagement and empathy at the 12 public schools in Northern Anne Arundel County. By creating new programs and leveraging existing resources to increase their impact, the Initiative increases access to high-quality, arts-integrated learning opportunities.