Our major concern is continuing to provide a platform that allows for the development of new work regionally and nationally. It is our belief that the disappearing theater in the African-American community is caused by two things: Limited funds available to subsidize ticket cost and diminished exposure to performance arts in education systems in the African-American communities. The absence of structured artistic expression in the African-American Community has resulted in the corrosion of our youth and families academically, socially and economically. It has been proven that neighborhoods that provide activities for families are safer. And, youth who are exposed to or participate in the arts perform better academically and do not participate in criminal activity. Mike Greene, President and CEO of the National Academy of Recording Arts %26amp; Sciences, Inc. (NARAS), warned the bureaucrats and political opportunists not to kill the dream of Blacks in the inner city and rural school systems where they have used music and the arts to escape from crime and poverty. Excerpts from his speech follow: %26quot;All of us with the Recording Academy are delighted to share this special evening with you, our television audience, well over a billion people connected by the perfect bridge of cultural understanding-music. Now more than ever, music must serve as a means of promoting the tolerance and understanding that allows us to live together, with civility and joy. %26quot;This begins when we offer our children access to a quality arts education. Instead we find that the arts continue to be slashed in our schools. And folks, this is the problem. The Scholastic Testing Service tells us that students who study the arts score an average of 30 to 40 points higher in math and science. Yet we now have half the number of children participating in high school band and choral programs than just 8 years ago. And where are these art programs being cut first? It begins in the inner city and the rural school systems, the very people and places that have given us most of our cherished and emulated indigenous musical forms. Rivky%26apos;s Arts Workshop, a New York-based art school recently commissioned Expanding Horizons to conduct a comprehensive review of published research in order to assess the overall impact of art education and to determine the socio-economic benefits if art education was further encouraged and more widely available. The main findings of the study are: * Students who take art classes, irrespective of their socio-economic background, perform better in reading and math tests than those who do not. * Art benefits children with learning difficulties-35%25 of students identified with a learning disability drop out of high school. * 85%25 of all juvenile offenders are poor readers, and more than 60%25 of adult prisoners are illiterate. * Art training in the juvenile justice system encourages learning, boosts self-esteem, and helps offenders return to society, where they are less likely to re-offend. * If art was more widely available in the juvenile justice system, it could save billions of dollars in incarceration costs and lead to a safer social environment. * Art eases stress and boosts confidence levels. Community leaders turn to the arts more and more to find solutions to violent crime in youth and gangs, unemployment, racial and ethnic relations, family instability and the quality of education. With the growing gang problem in Baltimore City something needs to be done to engage the young people other than the drug life. The second valuable Endowment News report is titled %26quot;Arts Education Partnership Releases Report Demonstrating the Arts%26apos; Critical Link to Student Development.%26quot; It tells about a study, also released in May 2002, giving indisputable evidence supporting arts education. U.S. Senator Thad Cochran from Massachusetts says, %26quot;While many of us have known arts education enhances academic instruction, Critical Links is the first report of the hard evidence that supports this conclusion. This will assist school boards, teachers, administrators, and community leaders as they make choices about the curriculum and other opportunities our youth should have.%26quot; The full report is found on the Arts Education Partnership home page, www.aep-arts.org, and hardcopies can be ordered from CCSSO (Council of Chief State School Officers) at (202) 336-7016. We have vowed to facilitate a new generation of culture. As Hines indicates Baltimore as in many cities does not have a lack of creativity, but avenues to develop new African-American theater is very limited and rarely taken seriously among established theater houses in the Baltimore Metropolitan area. The slow death of the African- American cultural experience through the arts is a direct result of an entire generation of young people that were not exposed to the arts. The absence of an accessible arts program has an impact on poverty, academics and gift wraps our children to gang and criminal involvement.
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