Youth Arts Council

03/16/2023

We're gearing up for some fun summer activities to be announced soon.

In the meantime - we just wanted to stop by to remind everyone to never discourage your kid's passion for creativity and that there is a massive amount of things we can do with education and jobs in creative industries!

12/24/2022

The Youth Arts Council wishes a happy and safe holiday to everyone celebrating this year!

11/18/2022

What an incredible story from the New York Youth Symphony!

Meet Dmytro TIshyn, affectionately known as Dima, who is a bassoonist in our orchestra. Dima left the Ukraine in February of 2022 with just a backpack and his bassoon. At the time, for the 15-year-old boy, the 24-hour train ride to the border of Poland followed by a cab across the border into Poland and then to Berlin for 3 months, seemed like an adventure.

But today, as he prepares to make his Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Youth Symphony on November 20th, home is what’s on his mind. His brother, mother, father, grandparents, and extended family all remain in Ukraine. But perhaps what gives him strength is the fact that he will be comforted by playing with his father’s bassoon, something Dima holds very dear to his heart.

It was thanks to the valiant efforts and hard work of Viola Kanevsky and her family’s non-profit, Ships of Tolerance, that was able to bring Dima here in the first place. When the news that the Russian invasion was imminent, Viola reached out to Dima’s mother about bringing her boys the United States. This started five-months of phone calls, letters, favors and an eventual plane ride from Berlin with a visa in hand as part of the United for Ukraine program – with Dima and his mom aboard. His mom stayed for about a month, but then went back to Ukraine to be with Dima’s brother.

His brother, Vlad, also a musician but as a percussionist hasn’t been able to leave the country since he was over 18 years old and needed to stay in case he had to fight. And with the announcement of a full draft in affect in Ukraine, the need to reunite Dima with his brother becomes of utmost importance. A talented percussionist, he has no time to practice since his teacher left for Germany and he spends a lot of time in a basement during raids.

This story is a powerful one and quite evident of the real-life struggles that are going on in Ukraine every day and the power that music has on our lives. It is definitely a story that needs to be heard.

If you want to support Dima and his fellow musicians, come see him at his Carnegie Hall debut.

You can get tickets here:

www.nyys.org/events

Michael Repper Carnegie Hall

10/27/2022

• • ATTENTION: TOMORROW’S MONSTER MASH HAS BEEN MOVED TO CHAINLINK GALLERY PLACE💜🧡

Please help us spread the word that our Halloween event will no longer take place at 7pm in the west mall. Monster Mash will now begin tomorrow at 6PM at Chainlink Gallery Place, 121 E. Douglas Ave.

With a venue and time change just a day before the event, things have been extremely hectic for us at Lear Heath Studio. We have poured literal blood, sweat, and tears into this event over the last 3 months. To see it all nearly crumble in such a public way was heartbreaking, but we will never forget how quickly our amazing community came to our defense. Thank you so much for offering support and checking up on us. We really do appreciate each and every one of you.

Now who’s ready to party? Coming together for one night only: 20+ amazing artists, 3 fantastic DJs, and 9 incredible Drag Queens await you at Chainlink Gallery Place, 121 E. Douglas Ave. The event is free to the public and starts at 6pm tomorrow, October 28th. Let all of your cool friends know!

This wouldn’t be possible without the incredible help from , , and . These three organizations have renewed our faith in humanity and we wouldn’t want to work with anyone else. Thank you so much for making sure this event happens. 🧡

* This is a No-Hate event, meaning troublemakers will be escorted off the premises without warning. We will have a considerable security and police presence, so ONLY attend if you intend to have a good time. There is no room in this space for homophobia. Our community will protect each other, no matter what.

09/08/2022

How cool are these drawings from Andover Middle School Art Class?!

08/11/2022

Calling all wind, brass, and percussion players! We are so excited to start our next season of Youth Ensembles. If you play the Flute, Bassoon, Alto Saxophone, Trumpet, Tuba, or any other woodwind, brass, or percussion instrument and are interested in being a part of the Wichita Youth Wind Ensemble, it is not too late to join! The Wind Ensemble is a small group of elite students that focuses on a “one-to-a-part” model. Repertoire performed by the Wind Ensemble is drawn from the pillars of the wind band literature, as well as newer works by living composers.
The Wind Ensemble performs two public concerts each season at Century II Concert Hall.

We also have some openings for our orchestral ensembles. If you are interested in learning more about participating in any of our programs you can click the link in bio or email [email protected] for more information!

05/27/2022

We cannot say THANK YOU enough to the Ulrich Museum of Art and especially to Ksenya Gurshtein (Curator of Modern and
Contemporary Art) & Jana Erwin Durfee (Head of Education) for the invitation to the Youth Arts Council to help curate a part of their Summer Exhibition. Thanks to James Ackerley Porter (Exhibition Designer and Production Manager) Ranjit Arab (Creative Communications Manager) and Dr. Rodney E. Miller (Interim Director) for your support, guidance, expertise, and encouragement along the way. And to Carolyn Copple (Membership and Special Events Manager) for putting togther - as always - a stellar opening night reception.

This was such an amazing behind-the-scenes process for these students to get to be a part of and a great reminder that ART plays such an important part in all of our lives.

Thank you to our student curators: Harper, Madeleine, and RJ for the time & energy put into this project. Returning to in-person learning and resuming all the normal school and life activities made balancing "extra" projects a little more challenging this year and these three came through with fantastic selections from the Ulrich collection with some really cool perspectives on pieces and visual arts in general.

Thanks to The Arts Council for supporting our efforts and the leadership Shannon Boone provides to this group of students.

And thank you to everyone who came out to support the arts at last night's opening reception. Be sure to put a visit (or two or three) to the Ulrich on your calendars this summer to see this show AND the staff curated exhibition, "Deep Dive: Selections from the Permanent Collection" Both on display from May 26, 2022 — July 30, 2022 and full of works from the permanent collection that you might not otherwise get to see!
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"Reemergence and Reconnecting: A Youth Arts Council Takeover"

For one of our Summer 2022 exhibitions, the Ulrich has invited members of the Youth Arts Council to take over our gallery space and curate an exhibition of works from the Museum’s permanent collection.

Founded by Arts Council member Shannon Boone in 2020, the Youth Arts Council is an organization open to all Wichita-area high school students who are passionate about the arts and interested in turning that passion into a career path. The mission of the Youth Arts Council is to provide active and inclusive opportunities for youth to LEARN, LEAD, ADVOCATE, and ENGAGE with other creatives passionate about moving the arts forward and inspiring change in our community. Participants are encouraged to infuse their voices, ideas, and creative energy into existing arts programming, as well as explore creating new opportunities for the arts in Wichita.

Three YAC members—Madeline Albert, Harper Sanneman, and RJ—responded to our invitation. Each curated a selection of works from the Ulrich collection on a theme that resonated with them. Over the course of the 2021-2022 academic year, the students researched and selected works from the collection, wrote statements about their curatorial visions, helped with publicity for the exhibition, and created the interpretive content that is available by using the Smartify app. The Ulrich greatly appreciates the hard work and dedication that Madeline, Harper, RJ, and Shannon put into this project. We are excited to offer an opportunity to develop the talents of creative youth in our community.

Partial support for this exhibition comes from the Youth Arts Council. The Ulrich is grateful for the ongoing support of Salon Circle members who make the Museum’s exhibitions and programs possible through their Salon memberships. We also receive funding for general operational support from the City of Wichita and Wichita State University.

03/24/2022

Congratulations to all these student artists - and a shoutout to YAC member Carter Weilert on the Gold Medal! :)

Congratulations to the 2022 National Medalists from the Eastern Kansas region:
Gold Medalist Carter Weilert of The Independent School Wichita, KS,
Silver Medalist Simon Koontz of Newton High School,
Lee (Chloe) Wolgast of Washburn Rural High School,
and Vivian Baughman of Wichita Collegiate School.

Please join us at the Scholastics Closing Celebration on Saturday, March 26 at 10 a.m to honor these talented young artists.

Please join us in celebrating the 2022 National Medalists! These teens have shown courage in sharing their personal works with us, and we are proud to recognize their bravery.

Thank you to all of the creators who participated in the 2022 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. We can’t wait to see what you create next. Congratulations!

https://newsroom.artandwriting.org/2022/03/23/lets-celebrate-the-2022-national-medalists/

03/11/2022

Action Needed!!
The Kansas State Board of Education has assembled a Graduation Requirement Task Force that is reviewing graduation requirements for Kansas students. One item being considered is the reduction or ELIMINATION of the Fine Arts credit graduation requirement.

The Kansas Art Education Association has taken a stance against that consideration and has sent a letter of opposition to all Kansas State Board of Education Members as well as the members of the Graduation Requirement Task Force.  

The Task Force is currently seeking stakeholder feedback. All Kansas Art Educators are being encouraged to fill out the stakeholder feedback form that can be found here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScgh-IpVSnY3zDAAKh1UdVOs48u-bcjLjqxI8gOP2-8TYBQHA/viewform

You can find the current report from the task force which includes information about the possible changes to the graduation requirements for Kansas students and the
possible changes to the Fine Arts credit requirement at the link below (report is 3 pages long):
https://www.ksde.org/Portals/0/Board/Graduation%20Requirements%20TF/Summary%20Feb%203%202022.pdf?ver=2022-02-04-134143-420&fbclid=IwAR1JY1glf_U7pNfXf3yf2hZSN4EJQzCqMY1bBFL9ztqD41eeLzEbWsdsrBQ