A teaching artist emergency fund is created to help offset the loss of income because of school shutdowns and a nationwide switch to remote learning. An evening of virtual performances–featuring dancers, beatboxers, drummers, storytellers, and more–called Superheroes Unite! is broadcast to benefit Young Audiences of Maryland Artists. This is Young Audiences’ first virtual fundraiser.

Young Audiences and community partners hand out project-based arts kits called Arts & Learning Snacks at meal sites across Baltimore City. The take-home art kits–designed by YA teaching artists–include all the supplies needed for children and caregivers to take a break from the screen for hands-on creating and learning.

When the COVID-19 pandemic sent the world into isolation and left families & school districts scrambling to support students with virtual learning content and resources, Young Audiences saw a way to help and jumped into action. Working together, our innovative and talented teaching artists created 50 (50!) original episodes of “Arts & Learning Kids”–a series featuring arts-integrated content for students of all ages. This provided teachers and parents with reliable, substantial, high-quality content for students (FREE when it was streamed live) and created a paid work opportunity for our contracted artists while in-person residencies, assemblies, and workshops were put on hold.

Research from Baltimore City Public Schools and evaluation firm WolfBrown showed that the infusion of the arts into traditional learning content transformed the classroom experience, resulting in academic gains for SALA students. Baltimore City Public Schools analyzes student performance on the i-Ready math assessment, taken at the end and beginning of each school year to gauge summer learning loss. Results showed that SALA attendees had significantly less summer learning loss in i-Ready math compared to BCPSS students who did not attend the program. The district evaluation also highlighted YA as the most cost-efficient elementary program with the highest rates of enrollment and attendance.

The adoption of Baby ArtsPlay!™ marks the organization’s expansion into the infant + toddler space.