[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 73 (Wednesday, May 22, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E855-E856]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E855]]



              PRAISING THE ARTS FOR DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN

                                 ______


                          HON. BILL RICHARDSON

                             of new mexico

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 21, 1996

  Mr. RICHARDSON. Mr. Speaker, unfortunately in too many of our 
communities, our youth are confronted with difficult societal problems 
such as drug use and gang violence. For some kids, these problems 
represent an alternate way of life, and often a way that they can 
escape their problems and at the same time gain a misguided sense of 
identity in a society, and at an age, where it is difficult to do so. 
In New Mexico, we have a program that has been successful at offering 
these vulnerable children a productive and enticing option for 
indulging their creativity, developing their individuality, and 
supplying that crucial sense of belonging.
  On April 26, the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities 
also recognized this program and honored the Center for Contemporary 
Arts Teen Project of New Mexico for having one of the most promising 
cultural youth programs for disadvantaged children in the United 
States. The work being performed by the Teen Project is invaluable to 
the community, and especially to the youths that it serves. This 
program not only keeps kids off the streets, but it also allows them 
the flexibility to discover their talents, express their emotions and 
creativity, and connect with the society at large through the arts.
  The fact that 85 percent of the program's participants are from low 
and moderately low incomes, and 55 percent are either Hispanic, African 
American, or Native American, displays that this type of program can 
work in some of the most economically challenged and socially diverse 
areas.
  The success of this program also demonstrates the continued need for 
the National Endowment for the Arts and the positive impact that the 
arts have on our community. Interestingly, the NEA helped launch the 
Teen Project with a 3-year NEA Challenge III grant.
  I urge my colleagues to review the background information on this 
program, as it has been highly successful in New Mexico in developing 
the minds and confidence of our at-risk youth, while simultaneously 
enhancing and strengthening our community. I believe that his program, 
and what it offers to our young people, can be successfully duplicated 
in other States, and together we can continue to develop and protect 
the real future of this great country--our children.

              CCA Teen Project Honored at the White House

       The CCA Teen Project announced today that its Director, Ana 
     Gallegos y Reinhardt, will be attending a White House 
     ceremony on April 26 honoring the work of the President's 
     Committee on the Arts and Humanities and the top nine youth 
     programs in the country that use the arts to change the lives 
     of at-risk children.
       The White House ceremony is timed with the publication of a 
     report developed by the President's Committee on the Arts and 
     Humanities, Coming Up a Little Taller: Arts and Humanities 
     for Disadvantaged Children, which profiles successful youth 
     programs in this country. The CCA Teen Project was one of 
     nine organizations chosen for in-depth study by the 
     Committee, drawn from a pool of 500 youth programs in cities 
     and towns across the nation. The Committee was charged with 
     identifying promising cultural youth programs that reach 
     disadvantaged children, and subsequently to find ways in 
     which to increase the availability of the arts and humanities 
     to at-risk children.
       The Committee's report states that successful programs 
     ``take full advantage of the capacity of the arts and 
     humanities to stimulate a different way of knowing and 
     learning.'' Carlos Uribe, the Teen Project's Program 
     Director, says in the report ``The arts provide a safe 
     container for every person or every culture or every group to 
     express things about coming into being as an adult, dealing 
     with hardship, dealing with a sense of beauty. No other 
     activity provides us with that. [The arts and humanities] 
     allow us culturally, individually to say things and do things 
     we might never get to do.''
       Director Ana Gellegos y Reinhardt commented, ``We are 
     honored to be a part of the Committee's report, which 
     recognizes the hard work of the staff, and of the youth of 
     Santa Fe and northern New Mexico, who have made the Teen 
     Project into a vital resource for our community. I feel very 
     privileged to be invited to the White House. Of the nine 
     youth organizations that were chosen from hundreds in the 
     country, two are from New Mexico [the other is the 
     Working Classroom in Albuquerque]. In that our state is 
     one of the poorest in the nation, I believe this is a 
     testament to the commitment and ingenuity of all of New 
     Mexico's arts organizations--and of the funding agencies, 
     individuals, and businesses which support them--which 
     enrich the lives of our state's youth, and indeed of all 
     New Mexicans.''


                               BACKGROUND

       The Center for Contemporary Art's Teen Project, now 
     entering its fifth full year of operation, successfully 
     demonstrates that the arts can be used as an effective tool 
     to bring teenagers from all walks of life together in a 
     setting designed by them to meet their specific needs. The 
     Teen Project was created as a response to Santa Fe's 
     teenagers' complaint that ``There is nothing to do. There is 
     nowhere to go,'' and to our observation that teenagers are an 
     audience traditionally undeserved by the arts community. At 
     the Teen Project, northern New Mexico's youth develop, 
     produce, and exhibit a wide variety of artistic projects in a 
     facility which they help run. Its participants, who vary 
     greatly in socioeconomic and ethnic background, reflect our 
     belief that the best way to serve disadvantaged youth is not 
     to isolate them in programs that serve narrow constituencies, 
     but to combine ``likes'' and ``unlikes'' in activities which 
     are culturally relevant to all, which encourage and inspire 
     the development of a creative voice, and which make all teens 
     feel like they are a productive and valued part of the larger 
     community. Since that time, the Teen Project has continually 
     expanded its successful programs for northern New Mexico's 
     youth, serving more than 8,000 teens in 1995. More than 50% 
     of Santa Fe's 8700+ teens participated in Teen Project 
     activities in the past year, of which 55% were Hispanic, 
     Native American, or African-American. About 85% of Teen 
     Project participants come from families with a low or low/
     moderate income.


                      History of the Teen Project

       In 1990 the Center for Contemporary Arts of Santa Fe (CCA) 
     began planning a new concept in arts outreach, designed to 
     actively engage and integrate Santa Fe's youth into CCA's 
     activities, and to create a ``place to go'' that would 
     provide a safe, creative, and positive environment for 
     teenagers. Key to the development of the Teen Project were 
     Bob Eggers, a Santa Fean who first conceived of the idea of 
     establishing an arts-based teen center in our community and 
     provided major funding for the Teen Project; Bob Gaylor, 
     former Executive Director of CCA, who played an instrumental 
     role in developing the Teen Project's programs and in raising 
     the necessary funds; and Chrissie Orr, an internationally-
     recognized public artist who served as the Teen Project's 
     first director. In 1991 a temporary facility was established 
     at the former Brunn School in Santa Fe, and in the following 
     year the Teen Project moved to an easily-accessible offsite 
     warehouse near the center of town, where it is now located. 
     Highly regarded as a national demonstration project, the Teen 
     Project has hosted numerous visitors from other cultural 
     institutions wishing to replicate its programs. As a model 
     program, the Teen Project demonstrates how cities, social 
     service agencies, and cultural institutions can combine 
     forces to serve our youth in a very effective and unique way. 
     The Project has also attracted national attention from other 
     quarters. In 1994, former director Chrissie Orr and two Santa 
     Fe teens testified before Congress in support of the NEA's 
     Community Building Initiative (at the request of NEA Chair 
     Jane Alexander). In 1995, the Teen Project was one of five 
     organizations featured in an international satellite 
     conference and film documentary on youth culture and 
     violence, which was also broadcast on PBS.
       The Teen Project was launched with the support of a three-
     year NEA Challenge III grant and some of America's most 
     prestigious foundations, including the MacArthur, Cummings, 
     Hearst, Brown, Frost, and Culpeper Foundations. Generous 
     local support has also come from area foundations, city 
     agencies, corporations, and individuals. Major annual funding 
     has been provided by the City of Santa Fe's Children & Youth 
     Commission.


                                programs

       Open 350 days each year, more than 380 events and 
     activities are presented annually in a facility which 
     provides performance, exhibition and band rehearsal space, 
     meeting rooms, a darkroom, and offices. These events and 
     activities include:
       More than 250 free workshops in photography, printmaking, 
     silkscreen, acting, creative writing, graphic design, dance, 
     theater, and music. Continuing workshops are presented by 
     local arts professionals, while special workshops are 
     provided by regional and national artists-in-residence who 
     come to Santa Fe as part of CCA's programs.
       Open mike nights were teens present their own music, 
     poetry, and literature.

[[Page E856]]

       Exhibitions of work by teen artists.
       Weekend dances with local bands.
       Unity Bashes--concerts by youth bands designed to bring 
     together teens from all parts of the city, from all schools, 
     and from all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.
       A visual Arts Apprenticeship program, called Warehouse 
     Works, which offers youth employment in arts-related 
     activities.
       Other activities run by the Teen Project include a weekly 
     radio show, Ground Zero, broadcast on KSFR-FM to an audience 
     throughout northern New Mexico; several performances each 
     year by the highly-regarded theater company, Theater of 
     Urgency!!!, mural painting projects sponsored by the City of 
     Santa Fe; and the production of a quarterly literary 
     publication, Free Food/Comida Gratis. All of these activities 
     are produced by the teens themselves, under the mentorship 
     and guidance of arts education professionals.
       The Teen Project's newest component is the Rainbow Project. 
     which offers outreach to Santa Fe's most troubled youth, 
     including those involved with gangs and other delinquent 
     activities. The Rainbow Project organizes youth conferences, 
     provides outreach services and in-school gang-prevention 
     programs, and develops arts-related activities including 
     lowrider shows and visual arts exhibitions.

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