Youth in the Arts Initiative

The Youth in the Arts Initiative began in 2003 in response to the Trustees’ interest in arts organizations that benefit youth from disadvantaged circumstances.  The Initiative is shaped by national research and local experience indicating the positive impact that high-quality youth arts programs have on self-esteem and academic performance.  The goal of the Initiative is to support the growth and development of youth as artists, as individuals, and as participants in their communities.

Project grants are awarded to after-school programs featuring dance, theater, film, literary, visual or multi-disciplinary skills.  Projects must offer high quality art experiences with a focus on both artistic skill development and goals for personal growth. 

In 2006 the Foundation expanded the availability of funding to include capacity building grants as well as project grants.  Capacity building grants are awarded to strengthen the abilities of organizations to develop, enhance or expand quality after-school art programs.  These grants support efforts such as staff development, fundraising, strategic planning, marketing and public relations.  During the initial grant cycle in 2004, the Foundation awarded ten project grants totaling $154,500.  In 2008, the fourth grant cycle, the Foundation awarded 25 grants totaling $527,000.

All proposals are solicited through a Request for Proposal (RFP) process.  Any organization offering a program that fits our funding objectives is invited to contact the Foundation by phone to discuss its work.

2008 Youth in the Arts Initiative grants include:

• America SCORES New England (Boston, MA)
  $25,000 for its Poetry in Motion afterschool program, to help urban children improve their literacy skills through involvement in poetry, theatre and performance arts.
  visit the America SCORES website
• Artists For Humanity (South Boston, MA)
  $30,000 for its Youth-run Arts Microenterprise program, an after-school apprentice/leadership program employing urban teens who, with the guidance of artist mentors, design, create and sell a variety of art products.
  visit the Artists For Humanity website
• BalletRox (Jamaica Plain, MA)
  $25,000 for organizational capacity building efforts.
  visit the BalletRox website
• Berklee College of Music (Boston, MA)
  $30,000 for SYSTEM-5, the intensive summer component to its City Music Program which engages highly talented, underserved urban youth with year-round, tuition free music education.
  visit the Berklee College of Music website
• Boston Children's Chorus (Boston, MA)
  $30,000 for its Lower Choir Program, an effort that aims to create two-intermediate and four training-level choirs as a way to provide children throughout Greater Boston with music literacy skills and a deeper understanding of cultures outside of their own.
  visit the Boston Children's Chorus website
• Boston Neighborhood Network Television (Boston, MA)
  $20,000 for its Teen TV Program, a year-round proram offering Boston youth activities that incorporate media production skills with leadership and community building
  visit the BNN TV website 
• Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra (Boston, MA)
  $25,000 for its Intensive Community Program, which provides accelerated music lessons to young children in an effort to increase diversity in the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra.
  visit the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra Website
• Cambridge Community Television (Cambridge, MA)
  $18,000 for the Youth Media Program, a year-round program that provides high school youth  with work experience, leadership training and media production skills.
  visit the Cambridge Community Television website
• City Stage (Boston, MA)
  $10,000 for its Professional Teen Theatre Troupe, an effort that aims to continue the development of theater skills and provide work experience for older adolescents who have completed the Teen Stages Program.
  visit the City Stage website
• Community Art Center (Cambridge, MA)
  $15,000 for the Teen Media Program, which aims to awaken and expand the academic, employment and leadership potential of low-income youth through running and curating a national video and film festival and engaging in a curriculum that progresses from basic to advanced in video, photography and multimedia skills. 
  visit the Community Art Center website
• Community Music Center (Boston, MA)
  $20,000 for the Intensive Study Project (ISP),  which provides long-term music instruction and specialized training to youth from underserved communities with the goal of preparing them for advanced music study and higher education and increasing the representation of young Bostonians in regional ensembles, orchestras and conservatories. 
  visit the Community Music Center website
• Federated Dorchester Neighborhood Houses (Dorchester, MA)
  $15,000 for the visual arts component of Art a La Carte, an arts education program that connects urban youth with in-depth art instruction for a range of media and skill levels, 
  visit the Federated Dorchester Neighborhood Houses website
• Hyde Square Task Force (Jamaica Plain, MA)
  $25,000 for its Ritmo en Acción Dance Troupe, where teens work with professionals to learn and perform complex Latin dance routines, while also undertaking activities designed to help them become responsible, community-involved adults. 
  visit the Hyde Square Task Force website
• Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción/IBA (Boston, MA)
  $20,000 for the Cacique Youth Arts Initiative, a holistic arts and music education program for teens founded as a response to escalating violence among youth in the South End and Lower Roxbury.
  visit the Inquilinos Boricuas en Accion/IBA website
• Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston, MA)
  $25,000 for its Teen Education program, targeted to the Teen Media and Fast Forward components. 
  visit the Institute of Contemporary Art website
• Lesley University (Cambridge, MA)
  $20,000 for scholarship support for Boston students to attend the EXTRA ART Program which provides professional-level training in the visual arts for high school students through an intensive summer program and Saturday sessions during the school year.
  visit the Lesley University website
• Medicine Wheel Productions (South Boston, MA)
  $25,000 for organizational capacity building.
  visit the Medicine Wheel website
• OrigiNation (Roxbury, MA)
  $15,000 for its Professional Dance Division, providing youth ages 9-20 with intensive dance training, mentoring and exposure to arts management and production through their participation in one of four dance companies.  
  visit the OrigiNation website
• Project STEP (Boston, MA)
  $15,000 for its Young Training Division, providing young string players of color with individual and group instruction, community service and performance opportunities.
  visit the Project STEP website
• Somerville Arts Council (Somerville, MA)
  $9,000 for Books of Hope, a program that uses creative writing as a means to help urban teens find recognition, artistic achievement and self-expression. 
  visit the Somerville Arts Council website
• Spontaneous Celebrations (Jamaica Plain, MA)
  $20,000 for its Festival Arts Program, a program that engages young people in community change through art and performance.
  visit Spontaneous Celebration’s website
• St. Mary’s Women and Children’s Center (Boston, MA)
  $20,000 for its GRLZ Radio program, which uses both skill development and media literacy curricula to enable young women to have a voice in their community through the production of a live radio show.
  visit GRLZ Radio Online
• Theater Offensive (Cambridge, MA)
  $25,000 for capacity building efforts to strengthen business and development capacity.
  visit the Theater Offensive website
• Urban Improv (Boston, MA)
  $15,000 for the Youth Unscripted program, which teaches teens specific acting and directing skills using interactive theater so they can draw from their significant real life experiences to act, create, and direct their own scenes.
  visit the Urban Improv website
• ZUMIX (East Boston, MA)
  $30,000 for its HANDS-ON Youth Development Program which offers East Boston youth six different programs providing broad exposure to music and technology through songwriting, performances, instrumental instruction and audio technology.    
  visit the ZUMIX website

View selected past grants >>