23 January 2007

White House Honors Arts, Humanities Programs for Young People

First lady Laura Bush presents awards to 17 groups in United States, Mexico

 

Laura Bush presents Alicia Guadalupe Montero Perez (left) and Ingrid Janet Noh Canto (center) of La Chacara Children's Cultural Center with a Coming Up Taller Award during a White House ceremony January 22. Gilberto Palmerin of the U.S.-Mexico Foundation for Culture is pictured at the far left. The Coming Up Taller Award rewards excellence in art and humanities for children and teens. (White House photo)

Laura Bush presents Coming Up Taller Awards during a White House ceremony January 22. (White House)

By Louise Fenner
USINFO Staff Writer

Washington – The nation’s highest honor for after-school programs that focus on the arts and humanities was awarded to 17 groups in the United States and Mexico during a White House ceremony January 22.

Exposure to the arts and humanities helps young people “build successful lives,” said first lady Laura Bush as she welcomed the winners of the Coming Up Taller awards.

Children and teens are developing life skills, confidence and discipline through these programs, she said, and “when dedicated adults give to these young people, these young people are inspired to give back.” 

Participants in these programs improve their reading skills and school attendance and are more likely to graduate from high school, according to the President’s Commission on the Arts and Humanities (PCAH), which sponsors the Coming Up Taller awards in partnership with three federal agencies.

The awards, which come with a plaque and $10,000, first were presented in 1998.  Some 120 groups have been recognized for their work, much of which centers on bringing after-school and out-of-school arts and humanities programs to underserved communities where children and teens are at risk because of economic deprivation, violence or domestic instability. 

Since 2000, groups based in Mexico as well as the United States have been honored.  This year, Gilberto Palmerin, the executive director of the U.S.-Mexico Foundation for Culture, helped present the Coming Up Taller awards to La Chacara Children’s Cultural Center in Campeche, Mexico, and the Children’s Cultural Center La Vecinidad in the Mexican state of Morelos. 

The Young Musicians Program (YMP) at the University of California, Berkeley, another award recipient, sent some of its best performers to the January 22 ceremony.  The audience gave standing ovations to the Junior Jazzers quintet and to 16-year-old singer Courtney Knott. 

Jessica Perez, 20, attended the ceremony for the Snow City Arts Foundation of Chicago, which provides workshops in literature, music and the visual arts to young people who are confined to hospitals due to illness.

Perez, who has spent much of the past five years in hospitals because of kidney disease, said after the ceremony that writing and painting help her forget her anger and frustration over her illness

Paul Sznewajs, executive director of the Snow City Arts Foundation, said the program has worked with thousands of children since it began in 1998 “and Jessica is one of our stand-out students.”  Her artwork and photography have been part of several exhibits in Chicago.

Laura Cain, 15, a student at Mandeville High School near New Orleans, said playing in the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra lifts her spirits, and the performances help bolster the morale of people in the community.  “Especially after the hurricane, it was so nice to go back do doing something that was normal,” she said.  “When school wasn’t open and I couldn’t do all my other activities, we were still going back to orchestra and still playing, and it helps everyone.”

This program, which started in 1994, also provides subsidized musical instruments and lessons to talented youth.

Mrs. Bush, in her welcoming remarks, surveyed the widely diverse groups honored this year, from the Radio Rookies of New York City, which teaches teens to produce radio documentaries, to the Tlingit Language and Culture Program in tiny, insulated Haines, Alaska, where tribal elders teach children about native arts and culture.

All over the country, people are reaching out to young people and helping them “build the self-esteem and the knowledge they need to avoid risky behaviors and steer toward a successful life,” Mrs. Bush said.

The name for the award, Coming Up Taller, comes from a statement by Willie Reale, founder of New York City’s 52nd Street Project, which enables young people to create original theater works.  “There is no way to fast forward and know how the kids will look back on this,” he said, “but I have seen the joy in their eyes and have heard it in their voices and I have watched them take a bow and come up taller.”

For additional information see the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities and Coming Up Taller.

A transcript of Mrs. Bush’s remarks is available on the White House Web site.

(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)