Kentucky Center to Serve More Than 6,000 Additional Youth with $85,000 in Grants

The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts recently received four unique grants from both local and national organizations, totaling $85,000, to support such community arts programs as Arts in Healing, ArtsReach and Arts Access Education. These grants, which are expected to increase youth program participation by more than 6,000, were awarded to the Center by the WHAS Crusade for Children, Kosair Charities, Inc., The Humana Foundation and The Dizzy Feet Foundation.

The grant from the WHAS Crusade for Children will support three separate programs aimed at providing arts opportunities to local youth. ArtsReach Far Reaching, which provides hands-on arts experiences with professional artists for marginalized youth living in residential treatment facilities and those with Down Syndrome and autism in Louisville, Mt. Sterling, and Frankfort, is one of them. An extension of the Kentucky Center's ArtsReach program, ArtsReach Far Reaching has helped 850 youth from eight collaborating organizations experience the arts in interactive workshops conducted by local artists who have a passion for and expertise in working with at-risk youth.

Additionally, the Crusade grant will support the Arts Access Education - "Artist in Residence" Program, which collaborates with the Kentucky School for the Deaf in Danville and the Churchill Park School in Louisville to provide arts opportunities to children with auditory, cognitive and behavior disabilities, as well as the Kentucky Center Arts in Healing (AIH) programs at The Children's Peace Center at Our Lady of Peace Hospital and at the Home of the Innocents. At AIH, the grant will provide arts experiences to medically fragile children and those who have been abused, abandoned and neglected at the Home of the Innocents and youth at the Children's Peace Center who have been diagnosed with depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional behavior, bipolar disorder, unresolved grief and trauma, and substance abuse, as well as other psychiatric, chemical dependency and dual diagnosis disorders.

The grant from Kosair Charities, Inc. will also support the AIH program, both at The Children's Peace Center and the Home of the Innocents, as well as at the Volunteers of America Family Emergency Shelter, the Catholic Charities Refugee Ministry, and Seven County Services, Inc. By providing arts workshops conducted by teaching artists, approximately 2,500 youth at the Children's Peace Center, 1,400 children at Home of the Innocents, and 780 children at each of the other facilities will be served through this program.

An award from The Humana Foundation will also be aimed at growing participation in the Kentucky Center's Arts in Healing program, specifically those activities operating within Metro Louisville hospitals and organizations.

The Dizzy Feet Foundation grant is aimed at the ArtsReach Studio Dance Program, which places professional teaching artists in community centers throughout Metro Louisville. These artists provide dance instruction free of charge to youth who have expressed an interest in focusing on this particular art form. The instructors are highly accomplished artists who have a passion for dance to children, and provide three hours of weekly instruction during the program year to youth ranging in age from three to 18. The grant will also support the ArtsReach Dance Camp program which is a week-long, day camp program for 60+ dancers from ArtsReach community centers. At the camp, students learn technique and choreography in several genres, including hip hop, contemporary, African, and liturgical dance forms.

"We are so thankful for the generosity of the WHAS Crusade for Children, Kosair Charities, The Humana Foundation and The Dizzy Feet Foundation," says Kentucky Center President Stephen Klein. "Our mission is a holistic one aimed at bringing the arts to all corners of our city and state, and these grants will allow us to further the reach and impact of some of our most important programs."

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