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RiverbendAcademyArts.com : About Us
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The Beneficiary: Our Kids
RBA & The Work of Art Program |
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Who We Are
RiverBend Academy, School of Visual & Performing Arts, is a 501(c)3 organization that seeks to become the premier education resource for arts in the region. With the intent of serving all, RiverBend serves those who show interest and commitment regardless of age, race, ability or circumstance.
As an inclusive organization, RiverBend teaches the arts in various disciplines. Comprised of institutes in the areas of Performing Arts, Music, Visual Arts, Culinary and Literary, RiverBend educates while mentoring and providing healthy alternatives to those taking lessons. In turn, RiverBend brings about hope, transforms lives and fuses various people and abilities while generating talented new artists and in some cases, forming new career paths.
In its unique model, RiverBend Academy advances life in our region through premium instruction while remaining dedicated to Henderson, Kentucky’s downtown. RiverBend furthers the economics of Henderson with a portion of its students traveling as much as an hour away for lessons. RiverBend also provides satellite programming outreach in various facilities and schools where there is identified need.
RiverBend Academy focuses on enduring relationships that will further the preservation, appreciation and advancement of the arts that subsequently will broaden, shape and build healthy, strong individuals - as well as the community as a whole. RiverBend is ultimately about health and well-being of community with excellent art instruction as the means.
The Work of Art Program
The Work of Art Program will focus to build self-esteem and broaden opportunities for adolescents and at risk youth. RBA believes that every individual is God’s masterpiece or a work of art in their own right. With over a decade of findings, the Americans for the Arts YouthARTS states that arts programs are proven to have an impact on youth. Not only can such programs enhance young peoples' attitudes about themselves and their futures, but the programs also can increase academic achievement and decrease delinquent behavior.
The YouthARTS organization also states the arts can provide a particularly powerful tool to engage youth and spark their curiosity and commitment; enhance thinking and problem solving skills; set high standards of quality, success, and achievement; provide opportunities to make tangible contributions to the group and the community and be recognized for those contributions. The arts open the door to self-reflection and self-expression. They provide the literal means for one of the most important tasks our youth face: to pose and wrestle with questions about the very direction of their lives.
According to the Welborn Foundation Indicators report, students in the region are seeing increases in drug/alcohol use, teen pregnancy and poor health due to lack of exercise and other risk factors. Our educators are doing all they can do with the funding they have – RBA sets out to help support them and fill in the gap.
The Work of Art Program will serve: (1)children and adolescents will be served by PREVENTION PROGRAMS by providing early mentoring arts opportunities after school and on site at schools in order to give positive alternatives to otherwise bad options 2) juveniles under 18 facing minor status offenses in the courts system will be served through DIVERSION PROGRAMS that will mentors and aid in preventing repeat bad behaviors (3) high school drop-outs, troubled teens and young adults 16-21 in need of learning an employable skill whereby their previous record or lack of resources prevents them from achieving such skills will be served by INTERVENTION PROGRAMS in the Culinary program at RiverBend.
Students who do not excel in sports or academics usually have a propensity for the arts. However, these students have no where to explore and achieve artistic ability, much less afford such education with a mentoring component. If you have fallen into trouble, the path out is dismal. Many with children are without support or skills and/or coming off incarceration/rehab without work options which leads to a return to bad behaviors.
After school early prevention, juvenile diversion and garnering intervention skills for employment are intended to provide healthy alternatives and keep adolescents involved, excelling, forward-thinking and effectively busy in their communities; changing their lives and the culture of the community.
Who RBA Serves
RiverBend serves a number of infants, children and young adults, but the academy is not just for young people! Everyone at any age or ability needs a healthy outlet and arts programs can fill a void. Ages presently range from newborns to those in their 80’s. All forms of art, music and performing arts with RiverBend’s mentoring instructors have therapeutic and value-building opportunities for all ages and special needs – boosting personal growth and exploration. Whether you wish to take ballroom or tap dance for exercise or learn to paint to fill time and relax, RiverBend has something for everyone and our regular paying clientele aid in the sustainability of serving our mission.
RBA’s Community Impact
RiverBend will improve life in the community by creating a healthier environment for young and old alike by infusing a renewed artistic culture into our community. By linking its artistic past to its future, RiverBend will draw from Henderson’s history of W.C. Handy to John James Audubon and help create new emerging artists from this region. Henderson will also receive an economic boost as regular paying students come to RiverBend from around the region to participate in excellent expert offerings which helps to build the financial sustainability model for RiverBend and further serve its mission of providing more for less to all walks of life. Subsequently, our economy, through the arts, will grow. Henderson will become even more attractive and businesses will want to relocate here, new shops and restaurants will open, artists will want to reside here and teach.
Imagine a community where drug and alcohol use, teen pregnancy and crime rates are reduced. With RiverBend providing healthy alternatives, young people will remain involved, forward-thinking and busy in their communities. The Culinary Institute restaurant mentoring workforce model currently under development will provide a training ground for an improved hospitality workforce and the region will see a boost in trained staffing for existing and new restaurants. Sales from the model will also aid the financial sustainability for RiverBend’s programming and outreach as well.
All our partners are in place. All the volunteers are ready. The instructors are waiting...All we need is you to join our effort and financially commit to RiverBend. The need is great and we need your support!
Click HERE to Learn More and read Student, Parent and Instructor Testimonials.
Why are the Arts So Important?
“Every student in the nation should have an education in the arts.” This is the opening statement of “The Value and Quality of Arts Education: A Statement of Principles,” a document from the nation’s ten most important educational organizations, including the American Association of School Administrators, the National Education Association, the National Parent Teacher Association, and the National School Boards Association.
1. They are languages that all people speak --that cut across racial, cultural, social, educational, and economic barriers and enhance cultural appreciation and awareness.
2. They are symbol systems as important as letters and numbers.
3. They integrate mind, body, and spirit.
4. They provide opportunities for self-expression, bringing the inner world into the outer world of concrete reality.
5. They offer the avenue to "flow states" and peak experiences.
6. They create a seamless connection between motivation, instruction, assessment, and practical application-- leading to "deep understanding."
7. They make it possible to experience processes from beginning to end.
8. They develop both independence and collaboration.
9. They provide immediate feedback and opportunities for reflection.
10. They make it possible to use personal strengths in meaningful ways and to bridge into understanding sometimes difficult abstractions through these strengths.
11. They merge the learning of process and content.
12. They improve academic achievement-- enhancing test scores, attitudes, social skills, critical and creative thinking.
13. They exercise and develop higher order thinking skills including analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and "problem-finding."
14. They are essential components of any alternative assessment program.
15. They provide the means for every student to learn.
Excerpt from New Horizons For Learning 1993 "Music & The Mind" article by Dee Dickinson
Data show that high earnings are not just associated with people who have high technical skills. In fact, mastery of the arts and humanities is just as closely correlated with high earnings, and, according to our analysis, that will continue to be true. History, music, drawing, and painting, and economics will give our students an edge just as surely as math and science will. Tough Choices or Tough Times: The report of the new commission on the skills of the American workforce, 2007, page 29; www.skillscommission.org
Schools that have higher levels of student participation in the fine arts receive higher academic ratings and have lower drop out rates. Average student enrollment in fine arts courses is 17 percent points higher in high schools that are rated “exemplary” than in those rated “low performing”, based on data from the Texas Education Agency on 951 high schools. Schools with the lowest drop out rates on average have 52% of their students enrolled in fine arts classes while schools with the highest drop out rates have only 42% of their students in fine arts courses. The data from 864 middle schools followed the same trend as high schools. – Analysis conducted by the Texas Coalition for Quality Arts Education and the Texas Music Educators Association (www.tmea.org). Full report: www.music-for-all.org/WME/documents/TexasArtsStudy.pdf
FOR MORE IMPORTANT STASTICS AND INFORMATION WHY YOUR CHILD NEEDS AN ARTS EDUCATION, Visit this site
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