About Young Audiences of Southeast Texas

Since 1973, Young Audiences of Southeast Texas, Inc. has been dedicated to helping the arts become a fundamental part of the education of our youth by assisting students and teachers in reaching educational goals through programs which showcase music, dance, theater, visual and literary arts professionals in a myriad of settings, i.e. assembly programs, classroom workshops, residencies and teacher enrichment workshops.

Because Young Audiences programs integrate the arts into all traditional areas of academic study, YA programs are valuable additions to classroom lesson plans. Each year, more than 50,000 children in eighty-eight schools in Southeast Texas, in grades PreK-12, participate in over 300 programs and workshops that integrate the arts into all traditional areas of academic study. All programs support the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) objectives and address National Standards for Arts Education and Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) in the arts and other disciplines. Over 33% of the artists on the YA roster are from Southeast Texas, and the remainder are national artists experienced in arts-in-education and recognized by such organizations at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA).

At the core of our mission is the belief that all children, regardless of gender, race, age, environment, or physical limitation, deserve the opportunity to engage in creative and educational experiences with professional artists of the highest caliber who combine their talent with the ability to educate and inspire children through their work. The philosophy of Young Audiences of Southeast Texas is that art is at the center of quality education, and by repeating the cycle of exposure, understanding and involvement, we can help to provide students with lifelong resources of enriching arts and educational experiences, and with unique opportunities to develop an awareness of cultural history and diversity.

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