Arts Learning

Free Arts targets partner facilities that have little or no arts programming such as the mental health day treatment programs, afterschool programs for low income youth, and learning center partner sites served by this project. Free Arts served 99 youth across five different community agencies during the course of this project. The key strategy to the program's unique learning opportunity was collaboration between the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Natasha Pestich and Free Arts Minnesota. Without any one of the partners, the program could not have been completed. Each partner gained new experience through Identity Ink and it was a new programmatic offering for each as well. The collaborative planning and coordination elements of the program were very successful. Through self-report survey data collected from youth, staff, and guest artists Free Arts learned that 76% of participating youth had never tried screen printing before and 88% of youth indicated they were able to tell their story through the project. 2: Free Arts strives to provide arts and mentoring programming to youth who would not otherwise have access due to various barriers. These barriers include financial, transportation, and connections/access within the art community. Free Arts mitigates these barriers by provided the program free of charge, bringing the program to the youth’s location, and developing the connections with the art community. A further goal for the program was to engage the youths' families and partner agency staff in the program’s exhibit. We had a large turnout of both at the exhibit reception and a high attendance over the course of the 4-day exhibit. Youth reported learning new forms of expression including screen printing and pattern work. The youth also identified the art tools of screens, squeegees, and hand rollers as new materials they had never before used. 74% of youth reported increased self-esteem and 85% reported increased self-confidence as a result of this arts learning experience.