EAST ST. LOUIS - The National Endowment for the Arts has awarded District 189 and its community partners a $75,000 grant to educate more than 700 students about the rich artistic history of East St. Louis -- and help them discover their own talent.
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Called East St. Louis Performs, the partnership includes the Katherine Dunham Center, Sunshine Cultural Arts Center, House of Miles, East St. Louis Housing Authority, Catholic Urban Programs - Griffin Center, Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center, Lessie Bates Davis Neighborhood House, Sinai Family Life Center, Christian Activity Center and the SIUE East St. Louis Center.
“The NEA grant will give children and youth across the community an opportunity to learn about the arts during after school hours,” said Hannah Allee, Out-of-School Time Systems Specialists with East Side Aligned and the United Way of Greater St. Louis. “Individual programs don’t always have the resources to provide dedicated staff to teach the arts in after school programs. With the support of NEA, this partnership across organizations will allow more kids to explore their interests in disciplines that are deeply rooted in the East St. Louis community’s history.”
A shared creative arts program has been on the agenda of the Youth Coordinating Council (YCC), a collaboration of East St. Louis out of school time program providers, for the past two years, according to Diane Sonneman, Director of the Griffin Center, a ministry of Catholic Urban Programs.
“The awarding of the East St. Louis Performs grant to East St. Louis School District 189 in collaboration with YCC and local artists will enable us to develop a sustainable citywide system that allows even the most disadvantaged, at risk child to have access to and experience a wide array of creative arts which play a crucial part in the positive development of every child,” said Sonneman.
She added that a Stanford University study found that young people who are involved in effective non-school arts-based community programs in under-resourced communities were:
- Four times more likely to win an academic award, such as being on the honor roll
- Eight times more likely to receive a community service award
- Three times more likely to win a school attendance award
- Four times more likely to participate in a math or science fair
- Likely to score higher on their SAT college admission test scores if they have been involved for more than four years of after-school arts study
“All of these outcomes support our goal of having all youth in East St. Louis ready for college and career,” Sonneman said. “We are excited and grateful to take on the challenge of making East St. Louis Performs a reality.”
The grant, which began Oct. 1, 2017 and will run through Oct. 31, 2018, will allow students to see inspiring performances, meet with accomplished artists and get the supplies and instruction they need to create their own works of art. But the East St. Louis School District and partners envision that this grant will serve as a launching opportunity for the community to develop better networks for arts programming to thrive after the funding ends.
“East St. Louis Performs will help increase youth exposure to various forms of art and increase youth performance opportunities across the community,” noted Sydney Stigge-Kaufman of the East St. Louis School District. “We will also use this time to develop an artist inventory to connect local artists with youth for in-school performance showcases and out-of-school programming.”
"We are thrilled to be a collaborative partner of the East St. Louis Performs Initiative. It is our mission to grow East St. Louis through culture and the arts,” said Sylvester "Sunshine" Lee, Executive Director of the Sunshine Cultural Arts Center. “Our goal is to teach students about the greatness from which they come so that they may understand that there are no limitations to what they can do."
