Invest in children’s creativity to unleash their hopes and dreams | Opinion
One can’t help but reflect on the ways the pandemic has affected an entire generation of children. Our youth absorbed the impacts of health and economic crises, amplified by political, social and racial divisions, all while navigating virtual learning, isolation and shifting household dynamics.
Throughout this uncertainty, however, we have seen young people’s fortitude as they’ve searched for creative outlets to process their grief, hone their talents and create beauty in the face of challenges. Our children showed us what we already knew: The arts are one of the greatest levers for healing, self expression, mind and body development, and social engagement. They clamored for these opportunities last year and, as a community, we must commit to helping them have better access.
In her June blog post announcing $2.7 billion in commitments to equity-oriented nonprofits across the country, philanthropist MacKenzie Scott wrote: “Arts and cultural institutions can strengthen communities by transforming spaces, fostering empathy, reflecting community identity, advancing economic mobility, improving academic outcomes, lowering crime rates and improving mental health.” Scott said that in selecting arts organizations to support, she and her team evaluated smaller organizations, with artists and audiences from culturally rich regions, to identify groups that donors often overlook.
As a longtime arts philanthropist, reading Scott’s post was a rallying cry for increased support of Creative Youth Development programs — a vision we share, which has been central to my own investments in Miami and across the country. Nationally, the Lewis Prize For Music identifies and invests in outstanding music organizations that put young people at the heart of equitable systems change.
In Miami, in the past several years, I’ve intentionally focused on efforts that put youth and music at the forefront, bringing together partners who share a common vision to bring Creative Youth Development programming to every single child in our community. In partnership with The Miami Foundation, Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and a group of philanthropists and changemakers, we have piloted an ambitious effort to bring high quality music education to all youth. As a pilot, we began in the city of Miami Gardens, bringing music programs to the 4,000+ students attending all 12 Miami Gardens Schools in the Carol City feeder pattern. These students benefit from music offerings both in and out of school, provided by seven local and national nonprofits, working in alliance with school principals and teachers. Through this effort, organizations that normally would work separately are working toward a common goal together — one that could be a tremendous model worth scaling across our community.
The Creative Youth Development field drives change by incorporating young people into decision-making processes, giving them the tools to express themselves. Creative Youth Development’s attentiveness to the holistic needs of young people, including their social, physical, emotional and educational well-being, makes the field a natural initiator of positive change in other youth-oriented systems. During the past year and a half, Creative Youth Development organizations nimbly adapted to the impacts of COVID-19 and the racial-justice movement. They committed to deepening their relationships with student musicians, adapted their offerings to remote learning, provided devices and connectivity where other systems failed, often secured food for students and their families and worked to keep their teaching artists employed. These organizations were critical anchors in the lives of those they served.
When we fund programs like these, we remove more than barriers to arts education — we are removing barriers to dreams, hopes and creativity. I ask mayors, school superintendents, nonprofit leaders and philanthropists locally and nationally to recognize Creative Youth Development as an essential resource to help guarantee all young people thrive.
Seek out the music, dance, art, theater, and media programs in your community. Include them and their young people in the development of civic solutions. Partner with them to ensure all youth have access to creative economy jobs. Join me and many other philanthropists as we deepen our learning about the complexities of this remarkable field so that today’s investments and positive outcomes are dwarfed by those of tomorrow.
Daniel R. Lewis is founder and chair of the Lewis Prize for Music and lead funder of Music Access Miami at The Miami Foundation.