Making enrichment programs accessible
To walk through Legacy Arts Project on a midsummer morning is to experience a montage of human expression. Every room and available space is alive with attentive eyes, stretching limbs, rhythmic beats and ever-present adult voices coaxing young learners to stay engaged in the task at hand.
“Dancers, don’t look at our visitor! Keep your mind on shifting your weight on beat three.”
Situated on a duplex-lined Pittsburgh street flanked by two lots — one an urban garden, the other with an open-air yoga platform deck for campers — Legacy Arts Project is in its 20th year of celebrating and creating Africana art and focusing on healing, wellness and community involvement.
On an average summer day, around 50 kids walk through the door at Legacy Arts and into just about any arts or arts-related activity one can imagine. In addition to classes such as dance, videography and African drumming, students can choose a focus on gardening, culinary arts or wellness yoga, which today is being taught by Legacy Arts Executive Director Erin Perry.
“We really try to incorporate practical experiences into the artistic journey of young folks,” Perry says. Looking back on her 10 years at the summer program, she has seen campers turn into staff members who have then gone onto careers in the arts.
The immersive experience of Legacy Arts Project helps offset major cuts in arts education many school districts have made over the past decade. A recent study commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts shows that low-income students who are highly engaged in the arts are twice as likely to graduate college as their peers who have had no arts education.
“We fundamentally believe that people can be thriving artists, not starving artists,” Perry says, stressing that Legacy Arts “works to create pipelines and pathways and nurturing spaces for young people to have experiences on the creative artistic side, as well as on the administrative and business end.”
One former camper who is thriving on the administrative side is N’Rae, a high school junior hired to help with bookkeeping and project management. Director of Outreach Velva Perry couldn’t be happier with her new protégé. “N’Rae has really taken to these new responsibilities,” she says. “She might be managing this place someday.”
One of the highlights each summer is Dance Africa performed for family and friends at Pittsburgh’s New Hazlett Theater. This year’s theme is “A Tribute to the Elders.” Dance Africa showcases work from all aspects of the camp, from costume design and makeup to the food audience members will enjoy.