Mission

Our mission is to inspire young people and expand their learning through the arts. We believe the arts and the arts-making process are essential components in promoting the social and emotional skills of all students. Founded in 1952, Young Audiences Arts for Learning is the nation’s largest provider of arts-integrated education programs and services, contributing to the well-being of more than 5 million children and youth annually. For more than 70 years, YA has engaged countless millions of students through learning experiences that foster creativity, self-expression, and cultural understanding, raise student achievement in other subject areas, and help develop 21st-century skills like critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving. Through art, we ignite a passion for learning in our young people, creating generations of lifelong learners. To bring traditional subjects to life through the arts, we pair professional teaching artists with classroom teachers for long-term residency partnerships and professional learning. To spark students’ passion for learning, we weave visual and digital art, music, media arts, theater, and dance into other subject areas like science, math, history, and language arts. By providing advocacy, communications, professional learning, fundraising, technology, and other support, the National Office of Young Audiences Arts for Learning guides the national Young Audiences Arts for Learning network and strives to advance quality and equity in arts education for all students.