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RiverbendAcademyArts.com : Need
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There has never been a singly more important project undertaken in Henderson County. This project will not only reach a broad cross-section of our community, but also dramatically change the personality of our downtown by infusing a renewed vibrancy both artistically and economically.
All schools in the region have seen a decline in arts education due to funding cuts to maintain education of the critical basics. Henderson County is no different. A body of national studies supports providing arts education to children in early formative years. Such early development arts education helps improve test scores and begins a healthy path to continuing schooling, going to college and pursuing careers.
Students in Henderson County over the years have seen increases in drug and alcohol use, early teen pregnancy, poor health and fluctuating test scores. Approximately 15% of students go on to college. In Henderson County you are either an academic or sports student. Many children fall outside both of these areas and find themselves dabbling in trouble. Students who do not have the talent for sports or academic achievement usually have a propensity for the arts. However, these students have no where to go to explore and achieve those artistic talents, much less the funds to afford such education. This is not the fault of our educators or administrators. The arts take money. Any extracurricular artistic education available in the region is expensive and those for-profit arts instructors that attempt to generously help scholarship a few individuals on their own can not have broad and significant impact that the full need requires. Riverbend, a not-for-profit, is working hard to garner grants, corporate support, sponsorships and other fundraising so individuals can access arts cheaply or at no charge.
Presently the children in pre-K to 5th grade have only one hour of music a week and a spattering of visual art. Daycare centers are unable to afford a specialized arts/music instructor and rely on instruction in these areas by existing daycare staff. Most of this education is broad based and offers little hands on instruction or deeper and long term exploration. Only at the high school level do students begin to see more arts programs, but degree program paths often prevent more from exploring these opportunities.
This is also similarly the case seen in centers around the area serving teens and adults. Centers serving those in rehab, incarceration, shelters and others have little or no arts offerings available. These are areas where if art is offered with specialized and longer term training, art could be not only be therapeutic and offer an alternative, but also begin some individuals on a new career path. The Culinary Institute is particularly earmarked for this purpose, but other arts offerings have and will continue to also be provided and explored.
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 drawing 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 to 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.
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