Two local arts organizations (out of 10 nationally) won the coveted National Youth Arts and Humanities Program Award this year, which is the nation’s highest honor in recognition of outstanding youth arts programs. Representatives from 826 Seattle and the Young Shakespeare Workshop accepted awards from First Lady Michelle Obama in November.
826 Seattle is a nonprofit, writing and tutoring center, located in the Greenwood neighborhood of Seattle. The organization is dedicated to helping youth improve their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. Their services are structured around the belief that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success. In addition to an after school drop-in center, they send trained volunteer writing teachers into schools all over King County.
Young Shakespeare Workshop has offered tuition-free summer programs for 20 years and first launched its school-based projects with Arts in Education Awards from 4Culture beginning in 1998. In daily classes, students grapple with the meaning and complexities of Shakespeare’s words, learn to speak them aloud and learn to fence with rapier and dagger. At the end of the session, public recitals are presented at the Broadway Performance Hall.
To learn more about the awards, visit www.nahyp.org.
