Young Audiences of Massachusetts, Inc.

Young Audiences of Massachusetts (YAMA) works to ensure that students of all backgrounds, talents and special needs have access to meaningful encounters with the arts during school, that help to:
• bring curriculum vibrantly to life
• inspire imagination and develop creativity
• strengthen learning and social skills
• promote cultural understanding
• introduce students to powerful modes of self-expression
• encourage students to create, risk, explore and discover their unique potential
For schools that include arts departments, we work to supplement arts curriculum with programming that introduces students to new traditions, approaches skills or learning connections.

For schools that lack arts departments, we work to ensure that students have access to a minimum of 1of hour of direct arts instruction each week throughout the year.
For hospital schools and special needs schools, we work to provide fully accessible programming to
• initiate artistic, social, cultural, and academic engagement
• facilitate creativity, imagination, empowerment, and laughter
• cultivate feelings of hope, often hidden when children are critically ill, faced with crisis, or chronic dysfunction
• provide respite from discomfort and pain
• initiate connections among children, families, artists, and staff through programs that foster education and well-being

For the most vulnerable students in our community, preschool students experiencing homelessness and extreme poverty, we work to improve kindergarten preparedness through our holistic literacy-through-music program.

Young Audiences of Massachusetts (YAMA) seeks out the region’s best teaching and performing artists, vets, evaluates and improves their programs, and works with schools and other learning centers to bring them directly to PreK–12 grade students. Through outreach and close partnerships, we select, adapt or develop programming that meets the learning goals and special needs of each educational partner.

Our roster of 135 performing and teaching artists represents a diverse spectrum of cultures, traditions and artistic approaches. This roster includes multiple award-winners, many affiliated with educational institutions such as Berklee College of Music, New England Conservatory, Leslie University and the Museum of Fine Arts School, and many affiliated with cultural institutions such as Boston Ballet and ImprovBoston. Artists are chosen for their abilities to represent excellence in their arts genres, their abilities to clearly articulate learning goals for their programs, and for their rapport with children of all backgrounds.

Our more than 100 program offerings for PreK–12 graders include:
• inspiring performances that introduce large audiences to an art form, its cultural context and its applications to school curriculum
• hands-on workshops in which small groups of students practice an art form with the guidance of a teaching artist in a focused environment
• in-depth residencies, in which a series of progressive, skill-building workshops culminates in a final student performance or project
• Year-long partnerships, which can include: weekly classroom instruction, student performances, visiting performers, professional development, arts integration and family engagement.

Our Expanded Arts Access Programming brings adaptive arts learning to those who face the greatest barriers to arts access, yet often have the most to gain from them, including youth at risk and youth with physical and mental disabilities and challenges.

YAMA has brought quality arts programming to Massachusetts students since 1962. We have contacts and relationships with schools and other learning centers throughout the Commonwealth. Our organization has a strong reputation in the educational community for quality, diversity of offerings, service and expertise. We work with 135 of the region’s best performing and teaching artists, and utilize their networks in recruiting new artists as needed.
Our staff has experience not only in arts administration, but also in performing, teaching, and social work. Our 9-member Board of Directors and 28 dedicated volunteers in 4 sub-committees represent a broad cross section of the education, legal, tech, business, and philanthropic communities.

During the most recent school year, YAMA brought arts learning to 130,000 PreK–12 grade students in 350 schools/learning centers in 187 Massachusetts communities. Included in this number are 219 preschool students experiencing homelessness or extreme poverty, and 255 students learning in hospitals or special needs schools. 612 at-risk students attending schools in underserved communities received weekly arts instruction in our Year-long Residencies. In recent years, we have expanded our programming to serve residents of public housing through MassHousing’s Tenant Assistance Program. This past summer, we also offered 7 free public performances for families in Boston and Cambridge.

In recent post-performance surveys of partnering youth arts coordinators:
• 94% said our artists demonstrated mastery in their art form
• 97% said that learning take-aways were taught effectively
• 92% said that take-aways were relevant to curriculum or filled-in gaps in curriculum.

YAMA currently offers more than 100 program options in dance, music, storytelling, theater and visual arts, representing a broad spectrum of cultures, traditions and approaches. Each year, we work to recruit, adapt, and develop new programming in response to community needs and learning goals. In the year ahead, we are conducting our first formalized community needs assessment, focusing on S.T.E.A.M, media arts, and arts integration programming. Having successfully implemented year-long weekly arts-in-learning residencies at several underserved Boston public schools, we are exploring other underserved communities that may benefit from this model.