❆ arts and the community ❆

Arts to Community

Public spaces are essential ingredients in every community. It provides opportunities for people to meet and be exposed to a variety of neighbors. Therefore, by organizing art events in the community, it helps to bring the community together. This will improve the camaraderie between community members and thus, promote interaction in public spaces. Community arts events are also to improve struggling communities by engaging youths in the said community. It must not be overlooked and cannot be left to parents and schools alone. These art events provide avenues for youths to become socially engaged and hence preventing them from indulging in immoral and illegal activities. In addition, these youths are also able to gain experience by volunteering for these events. They can gain business experience as well while working with professional artists such as mentors and instructors. This will expose them to the arts. 

Community arts events also have great indirect environmental benefits. Not only helping to revitalize older and distressed neighborhoods, but it also helps to teach the community about the effects of non-recyclable waste.

3.1 Rubbish Prince 

Example of such is the Rubbish Prince, one of the programmes in Arts in Your Neighborhood (AYN). It teaches the community about the dangers when they do not recycle. Through collective upcycling efforts of various community partners in putting this production together, The Rubbish Prince is an allegory to the relationship we have with the materials that we consume and discard daily.

3.2 Art Buddies after the Rubbish Prince

On the other hand, the Arts Buddies helps to build the artists in kids. This is an arts and crafts segment where kids are able to create flowers by using different recyclable materials. The community arts events, in turn, create stronger cities and towns that are better positioned to absorb population and economic growth that might otherwise be diverted to sprawl.

Community to Arts

It is no doubt that arts organizations would not be able to exist without the support they receive from their community. For nonprofit organizations, local support is the most important. Contributions from the community keep these arts events going and also allows them to carry out their mission of stimulating awareness and appreciation of the arts. It is also thanks to these contributions that the arts events are able to inspire a local culture of creative and innovative thinkers by providing support and showcase deserving artists and providing an exceptional education for students.

By supporting the arts events in one's community, it can also help to inspire young minds. For art to remain a significant part of our society, it has to be passed along to the younger generations. There is a study that those who are receiving education in the arts have higher Grade Point Average (GPA), has better test scores and lower dropout rates. By providing support to these community arts events, we are indirectly giving these students to succeed in life and thus, embracing their individual creativity.