Jul 1 · 5 min read
In the wake of COVID-19, Young Audiences Arts For Learning, Maryland & FutureMakers have been busy passing out 18,000 snacks to children at meal distribution centers around Baltimore City.
Their snacks aren’t edible though, instead, they’re creatively-named free art kits that youth and their families can use to build a variety of projects at home during the pandemic. This initiative’s full name is Arts & Learning Snacks!, and it’s a collaborative effort between the two youth arts organizations to provide equitable art education to Baltimore youth and their families who may not have internet access at home.
When COVID-19 struck, and stay at home orders went into effect, teachers around Baltimore (and the world) were forced to shift their lessons online - but not every student was able to access them. As Stacie Sanders Evans, President and CEO of Maryland’s Young Audiences chapter notes, “Everybody was moving very quickly into virtual learning but there were so many families that didn’t have devices at [that] point.”
This inequitable reality is an example of the digital divide: a term that describes the gap between those who have access to the internet & internet-connected devices, and those who do not. As the pandemic has made so many of us reliant on these resources to work, learn, and communicate, this inequity has been brought to light in an unprecedented way.
Home internet access is even more essential than normal during this time, however in Baltimore City, it’s not guaranteed. According to the 2018 American Community Survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau, “…96,000 households in Baltimore (40.7%) did not have wireline internet service, such as cable, fiber, or digital subscriber line service.” The same report also references a figure showing that 1 in 3 Baltimore City households lack a laptop or desktop computer.
With such a large number of homes lacking these essentials, it was important for the team at Young Audiences & FutureMakers to come up with an initiative that could serve as a form of arts education that families could enjoy, regardless of the digital resources they have at home.
“One of our artists, Matt Barinhotlz from FutureMakers, had this idea of basically creating…arts/creativity kits and distributing them at meal sites,” Evans explains. These sites are repurposed Baltimore City Public Schools with an established system of distributing resources to food-insecure families, who Young Audiences & FutureMakers especially wanted to reach. This choice also had the bonus of helping them come up with a unique name for their project.
After initially calling the art packets “kits” (a name whose similarity to “kids” caused some confusion in the early days), the group started to search for a new name. They decided “snacks” would be a better fit because the small art packets would supplement the meals families needed during the pandemic.
Snacks! include all the materials needed to create art projects, which can range from lumps of clay to cardboard as well as paper instructions written in English & Spanish. Online, Young Audiences’ website hosts videos with step-by-step instructions on how to complete the projects, ensuring youth can enjoy their art project whether they have internet access or a device at home or not.
While the need to provide equitable arts education is the driving force of this project, it has another added benefit. Many of Young Audiences’ teaching artists, who are all independent contractors and typically do residencies, assemblies, and other face-to-face engagements were suddenly left without work in the wake of COVID-19. This project gave these artists an opportunity to work assembling the Snacks! under strict safety guidelines, as well as delivering them to distribution sites and handing them out to families. As Cat Brooks, Program & School Relationship Coordinator at Young Audiences says, “….we [had] these artists that we care very much about in this very precarious position, so this was also a good way for us to be able to pay our artists.”
This project is just one of Young Audiences’ initiatives for promoting education for Baltimore’s youth in an equitable way during this pandemic. They’ve also created an educational television series called Arts & Learning Kids that airs every weekend on Baltimore City Schools’ public access TV channel and produced digital content that will be available to students around the city.
With the success of the Arts & Learning Snacks! program, which includes plans to distribute 4,000 Arts & Learning Snacks! in St. Louis in June, Young Audiences & FutureMakers are looking to expand their work and continue feeding young people’s minds in Baltimore & beyond.
Thank you to fellow Stories to Support collaborators Kate Lynch for coordinating the interview used in this piece and providing research, and Andrea Stennett for editing this piece.
How Can You Help Young Audiences & FutureMakers?
Request Arts & Learning Snacks! for your community by contacting: Cat Brooks, Program & School Relationship Coordinator: cat@yamd.org
Volunteer to help Young Audiences’ Summer Arts & Learning Academy, which will be using Arts & Learning Snacks!
Using the hashtag #YAMDkids on social media & connecting with Young Audiences (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook) & FutureMakers (Instagram, Facebook)
To connect with more resources, check out the Baltimore Corps COVID-19 Resource Guide and stay tuned for the next installment of Stories to Support.
Do you know of an initiative responding to COVID-19 as a racial equity issue? Complete our Google Form to potentially be featured on Stories to Support!