How Creative Youth Development will shape the next generation
The arts don’t just inspire creativity; they sustain our well-being. Across generations, we’ve seen the holistic impacts of arts and culture experiences, through the lens of the person and the community.
This philosophy is core to Creative Youth Development (also known as CYD), a structured approach to youth learning that combines hands-on artistic skill building and life skill development to foster well-being. Amid the launch of Allen Family Philanthropies’ first CYD-focused initiative, we sat down with Judilee Reed, president and CEO of United States Artists, and Anh Nguyen, director of arts, youth, and communities at Allen Family Philanthropies, to discuss the lifelong benefits of CYD, ways to uplift youth in Washington state, and the impact of arts and culture organizations.
How does CYD differ from traditional arts education?
Judilee: CYD is marrying arts and cultural training with an age-appropriate development path. We used to think of arts and culture training as something one did after school, or what artists did to master a skill, but CYD takes a more integrated approach and actually thinks about who the young person is and what they need. And those needs are enhanced through a meaningful program that thinks about their development path and their creative path as a whole.
How can CYD be a driver for enhancing individual and community well-being?
Anh: We talk a lot about community well-being, and it's a multi-layered term that can mean different things to different people. For a younger person, as we think about creativity as a tool, there are two components: introspection and connection. There are many ways that you can be introspective, but arts and culture play a really unique role in helping younger generations develop self-expression, voice, and agency. The ability to collaborate and connect through a form of art with adults or other community members is a powerful way to help a young person develop individual skills and social connections they can hopefully carry forward through their lifetime.
Judilee: One of the most important aspects of a healthy community is its culture. Oftentimes that culture manifests by the art making and the cultural practice of the people who are there. At United States Artists, we’ve been thinking about how the practices built by artists and engaged by young people and the general public alike, can often set the pre-conditions for other societal benefits (from strengthening community culture to increasing economic activity) to take place.
Can you tell us about Allen Family Philanthropies’ interest in funding CYD?
Anh: Everything the foundation does is connected to one core belief, and that is ‘when everybody plays their part, we create the foundation for a thriving and resilient community. With that framework, future generations, creativity, and the environment can thrive. We see CYD as an intersectional effort that supports young people both as creators, but also as agents in their communities and in service of something bigger than themselves.
How do practicing and teaching artists influence the success of CYD programs? What are some ways we can support teaching artists and give them the resources they need?
Judilee: Teaching artists propel the conditions we are looking for [in CYD]. They have incredible talent that is specific to not only a sense of craft, but also to a sense of generosity and articulation of what training processes look like for young people. We prioritize compensation and employment structures for teaching artists. We should think about how we can engage them in a way that helps them predict what income and employment would look like.
Anh: In part, teaching artists are not supported to the fullest extent because the organizations in which they find employment are also constrained. Understanding the true value of these programs and organizations and amplifying them as not ‘nice to haves,’ but instead as critical elements to well-being and communities, helps the collective sector better resource our communities and the people who are contributing to art.
Do you have specific success stories from what you’ve seen from students that have participated in CYD programs?
Judilee: Some of the most interesting CYD programs go beyond art. There is a fantastic organization in Los Angeles called Heart of Los Angeles. What is so striking to me about the organization is when you walk through the campus, you witness young people engaging in artistic training, developing life skills, and building their sense of agency through creativity.
Anh: This is an opportunity to uplift the stories of how CYD programs are making a difference across the state. One of our current partners is Children of the Setting Sun Productions in Northern Washington. Something that is really powerful is the intergenerational nature of their work with Indigenous populations and their work on cultural transmission and storytelling, which isn’t necessarily a circumscribed definition of art. They are creating amazing opportunities for young people to participate in culture and professional development and also learn problem-solving skills. It's a great example of how arts and culture can deepen young people’s engagement in their community.
How would you like to see CYD programs evolve in the coming years?
Anh: I would love to see more recognition of the role that CYD plays. Sometimes youth development in general can be overlooked given other outcomes that are potentially easier to measure or have larger data sets, such as standardized test scores or graduation rates. In many ways, the skills and outcomes that come from participation in a creative youth experience are foundational in allowing for other positive outcomes, like education, work, or health outcomes, to happen.
In the coming years, I hope we work on understanding and amplifying the importance of the grounding skills, competencies, and experiences that come from CYD and work to ensure that access to arts and culture experiences are evenly distributed. I’d like to see civic and policy leaders rally attention and resources in support of more programming for young people. Especially since we see the communities with higher access to arts and culture are more connected and have more economic opportunity.
Judilee: The field of arts and culture is at a crossroads, and there are tectonic changes in how people engage with arts and culture. Because it is being rewritten, we have to think, ‘what are the techniques for how we hold creative practice and how do we value artists in our society?’ It's exciting to me to see an artist who may not be aspiring for the biggest stage, but will really claim the space that they’re in and build a community around them to share and celebrate the practices they’ve developed.
How do you engage with arts and culture in your personal lives?
Anh: I am currently experiencing arts and culture through the young people in my life. I go to concerts and shows and gallery openings, but I am often sitting in musical theater performances at community theaters for grade school age kids or at my oldest child’s a capella performances.
It’s reigniting my own curiosity. I played violin until eighth grade and then I stopped. My younger child is playing violin now. I recently brought my violin home from my parents’ house, picked it up and started playing again. And it may be a bit scratchy and squeaky, but it's kind of great to be doing that again.
It's important not to forget that there is a lot of joy in arts and culture, and that brings immeasurable value. When I think about my personal connection with arts and culture, I came to it because of that joy. Through arts and culture, you get raw and reactive feelings of wonder, joy, or pain. Arts and culture has space for introspection, reflection, and relationship building—and it also has space for joy.
Judilee: I studied art and spent a lot of time in the studio making work, but one of the things that excites me is something that one of my family members reflected back to me. They recalled that, when I was young, the only days that I wanted to go to school were the days that I had art class. Now I experience art in many ways–both as a practitioner and as a parent who values programs that center the interests of youth and reflect what is relevant to them; programs that provide safety and opportunities for young people to think both introspectively and beyond themselves. I participate in art in ways that help me experience a holistic and healthy community.
What excites you about the next generation of artists?
Judilee: I am excited by this new generation of artists. It is incredible to see artists who were just starting out at the early phase of my career who have built longstanding careers and have shared their work over decades.
And we know how hard it is to build a continuous practice. Whether or not young people in CYD programs become professional artists, we can hope that long term impact of CYD programs is an interest and ability to engage with arts and culture that provides important benefits for people throughout their lives.
Allen Family Philanthropies is funding $5 million to advance CYD programs in Washington state. The foundation is accepting Letters of Interest (LOIs) for the CYD RFP through Nov. 19. Organizations in Washington that serve youth ages 13-26 during out-of-school-time programs utilizing arts and culture in youth-centered programming are encouraged to apply.
