[Music] welcome back to Houston life last year the bipo Arts Network and fund or bamp launched an initiative to explore barriers in arts education in Houston specifically the problems black indigenous and people of color the nonprofit leaders face when it comes to educating students on the art so joining me today are some wonderful guests Armando Silva he's the executive director of Mecca charity Carter is is the executive director of the Edison Arts foundation and Amina Clark Walker is right he
re and she is a first grader in the Arts if you wanted to know this is her beautiful artwork right here welcome to Houston life y'all thank you thank you so real quick I'll start with a Meetup what grade are you in first grade okay and you love and you love the Arts yes and I also love gymnastics it teach me a lot of stuff and I like doing cartwheels love a cartwheel love a cartwheel okay perfect now I want to start with our admond and charity because you guys said we need to do this study to re
ally explore what's going on as far as Arts education and uh black indigenous people of color Armando why was this study so important I think we sometimes forget how important the Arts are into the perfect formation of a being right I think uh the discipline that the Arts teaches can be carried across all aspects of one's life and sometimes we forget that right and what better time to learn it than when you are a first grader when you are in kindergarten right um You get them instill that immedi
ately when they start growing and it really leads to a great forming of a person right and and charity what what problems are we trying to solve before you embark on this big study I mean what problems were you saying okay we need solutions to that we're trying to solve a holistic approach to Wellness to well-being to uh education to just so many societal issues I think that the Arts can be a beacon to the solution because it brings us together right right so you guys are going to based on your
findings Armando let's start with what what did you find when the study was was released so the great thing the greatest thing we found is that we are not in this game Alone um we find each other like we met through this process right and uh before that we didn't realize that we're here together doing the same struggle and and fighting for communities of color um so that was a great finding to know that we're not alone and we can reach out to one another um the other thing is that we all have si
milar uh upbringings that really time in family and Community to this work right so those were for me were the two biggest things that we learned that we can really uh use to progress our work right and charity what are what are you learning you know now that you decided to okay let's join forces uh what things are you excited about well better together that uh holistically again if we can tackle so much more if we unite and tackle it together Armando touched on our core values which is family c
ommunity and arts and so when we kind of r around those things we can tackle so much more together um it's generational when we have kids and when we have events it brings the family together it brings the community together it brings the school together it brings the church and it brings all those supporters and that's actually powerful so you guys are preparing to launch something based on all the the information that you gathered and you found I mean this study was done around kids just like
Amina right so now that you have found some of that data what is what is the initiative now what is going to be launched so we're working to figure out what that actually looks like we had a great opportunity over these months to figure out what we want to do and how we want to take it into the communities where it's needed right we want to leave the spaces where we are and go to where the work is needed uh understanding that particularly right now with HISD and and how things are changing how c
an we support the schools how can we get ourselves back into those places because we're not in many cases and that's been a huge issue like really coordinating and programming with the schools so I understanding that the testing is such a big deal and that OB plays a huge barrier for us um so what can we do in our organizations either um together or apart but how can we support the families that really need the work the schools that really need that help right and for someone I mean growing up a
rt is like it can be your favorite class it can be just such an outlet uh charity why do you think um that students just really embrace it so much I mean is that part of why you got into being an executive director with your charity absolutely because the Arts can do so much the Arts is so powerful it can be calming uh we have some families who've gone through some difficult situations they've lost their mom and so for them to come to an after school Arts Academy a program where they can feel sa
fe where they can learn and grow and and kind of take out their frustrations or their their thoughts into art um It's a Wonderful opportunity I want to touch on that really quick because she said how did that lead you to be an executive director we learned also in the process this is a calling right we didn't set out to be like I'm going to lead this organization like that's not what we did we are both dancers we started like I want to do this because it feels good it makes me a it is who I am r
ight and that leads you on the right path to this calling that's what it's become and so now that we're a product of what we've done we want to give back right Absolut and you know what I'm so glad that Miss Mina is here because when I was in first grade I don't know that I could have pulled off something so wonderful like this now if you look closely I do see are those Powerpuff Girls yes can you explain this drawing and why you chose these colors I chose these colors because one looks like bub
bles but he has the but she has the colors of Buttercup this one is still bubbles but she has the colors of bliss this one is Bubbles but with the bow yeah the skin and the hair of bliss love it yeah I love it so and and do you really like doing art I can tell how much because it's so beautiful what is art class mean to you what's your favorite part well like our class means to me like people can probably do all kinds of stuff and like they make arts and crafts yeah yeah okay yeah just whatever
is in your heart right okay uh armanda Silva arando Silva charity Carter and Amina Clark Walker thank you so much now listen if you'd like to read the full report that we're talking about it's available on our website Houston life.tv
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