Young Artistic Minds

The goals(s) for Young Artistic Minds is to become financially sound and provide arts education to more area schools in the Genesee County, Michigan. Since our corporation in March 2017, we have provided visual art programs in-school and the after-school program at Pierce Elementary School in Flint, Michigan. We are looking forward to continuing our programs for the 2019/2020 school year. I sit on the PBIS committee at the school to help in developing creative ways for student Positive Behavior.

To accomplish the above goals we need to (1) Continue writing grants, hold art events in the community, and seek corporate sponsorship. (2) To further our programs into other schools it means meeting with principals and promoting our arts education program. The principal at Pierce Elementary School is promoting our programs at principal meetings. She has been a great supporter of our program. (3) Being on the PBIS committee will give us a voice to be creative thinkers in initiating visual signage throughout the school, develop events, and maybe a reward system to encourage positive behavior.

I, Anna Schuller, Executive Director, have a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography and a Master Degree in Arts Administration. I have also become proficient in writing grants and seeking funding. My previous work experience was in finance which helps in maintaining spreadsheets and keeping the budget on track and balanced.

We have partnered with the Crim Foundation, Flint Community Schools, YouthQuest, and Davison Twp. Parks and Rec. Partnerships are a great way to get the organizations name out there. Some help with funding, while others provide space to teach and hold fundraising events, such as Flint Community Schools and Davison Twp. Parks and Rec.

The board helps with funding and obtaining community support. Our board President was a business owner in the community for many years. He is a member of the Optimist Club in our area. They provide scholarships to students. I have been asked to meet with this group to possibly provide scholarships to children for art camp this summer which we are hosting along with Davison Twp. Parks and Rec.

The art instructors have degrees in the arts. They are accomplished in that they exhibit their work and do commissioned work. The instructors are very creative and provide great ideas in developing lessons and art projects.

Earlier I mentioned community partners which are vital to Young Artistic Minds. Support from the school and its teachers, staff and principals are sometimes hard to get but we have accomplished it this past school year. We have created a standardized art curriculum that was very successful this past school year. We have been able to tweak the lessons and projects as needed. Everyone learns at a different pace and level and our visual arts program is designed to work in different scenarios. We incorporate literacy into our lessons and in the after-school program. This was the only thing the school asked us to add into our lessons.

The arts education program is expanding this next school-year 2019/2020. The Flint schools went to the balanced calendar starting this fall 2019. We will be starting back sooner and will have six weeks more of lessons to create. Also, we have been asked to teach during intersessions. This adds five more weeks (we were not scheduled to teach during these weeks originally). We will teach Monday through Friday for three hours each day. Intersessions are still in the planning stages at this point.

We look to expand the visual arts education program into more schools maybe starting with the 2020/2021 school-year. Of course, this will be done one school at a time. This gives us time to create a plan, seek funding, and add additional art instructors.