Artists for a Cause

Results: Our "Dance for Food" program is a contemporary dance performance series which feeds needy families in our community. Attendees bring nonperishable food donations as their “entry fee” to five performances throughout Palm Beach and the Treasure Coast. The program creates professional and educational opportunities for dancers, a cultural opportunity for the community, and raises more food to feed the hungry than our entire program budget would buy. Last year we raised over 1,000 meals with three performances. This year we hope to double that number, with five performances and your generous support. "Therapeutic Arts" is a program which employs the visual and performing arts as a means to improve our community's mental and physical health. This year, as many as 50 facilities in Palm Beach and the Treasure Coast will be served, with hundreds of elderly people and at-risk youths receiving treatment through visual and performing arts. "A4AC School Clubs" help students use their talents in the visual and performing arts to strengthen their community. First, "Share Arts" students present their talents, then take on the roles of teachers as they share their arts education. Additionally, with training from an experienced counselor, “Art as Therapy” students help at-risk youths to use the arts as a vehicle for tackling social and emotional struggles.

Geographic areas served: Florida, USA

Programs: Dance for food program - the annual dance for food, presented by artists for a cause (a4ac) brings together many of florida's finest contemporary dancers to showcase their talents in front of an audience whose only admission fee is a bag of unexpired nonperishable goods. With this one event, a4ac was able to answer many community needs: (1) food for the needy - approximately 5,000 pounds of food were collected in total and distributed to the needy through various partnerships in south florida. (2) performance opportunities - 20 professional dance companies throughout the state, 50 high school students and 30 students of individual dance companies performed, (3) a cultural opportunity for the community to view contemporary dance for a negligible cost. Many of the attendees had never witness live contemporary dance. The a4ac dance for food event is a perfect example of the arts as a catalyst to address a critical community need. The program produces significantly greater results than could be obtained through a more traditional fundraising event. The organization is here to support the arts and dance culture with professional and educational opportunities, while also raising more food than the program budget would purchase. In addition, this event increases the community's awareness of art while allowing artists the opportunities to use their talents to create a better world in a new way. In 2014, there were four dance events in martin, st. Lucie, and palm beach counties, which took place during the month of november.

therapeutic arts program - this program explores and utilizes the healing power of the visual and performing arts. Hundreds of at-risk youths and hundreds of elderly are currently served by the program. A4ac has expanded the program and includes opportunities for all performing artists and visual arts educators interested in serving the elderly and at-risk youths. Art and music therapy are proven to be useful because of their inherent ability to surpass language barriers and achieve therapeutic gains in a safe environment. More than one organization in martin county has utilized a4ac to be the source for their visual art, dance, theater, and music opportunity for at-risk children served by the organization. We can say with certainty that we are providing more arts education opportunity to at-risk youth in our county than any other organization. Measurable outcomes of the curriculum include, but are not limited to, work on cognitive and auditory processing and other sensory-motor, perceptual/motor, gross and fine motor skills, planning, sequencing, organization, attention span, problem solving, flexibility, socialization and impulse control. Additionally this work has proven to affect brain development in areas unrelated to art and also values.

support for charities program - visual and performing artists from our national network, which is approaching 1,000 this season, are on hand to support charity events with performances, visual art for auction, and other unique solutions for community improvement. This program provides artists an outlet to other organizations to further their career and to provide the community with more availability and more awareness of visual and performing arts.

miscellaneous other programs other smaller programs include: (1) a4ac school clubs that allow students to use the visual and performing arts as a means to strengthen their communities by providing mentoring and access to arts education to younger students in other organizations who have less opportunity, (2) scholarships providing funds to those individuals in need and, (3) singing with the stars to help provide awareness of the arts and benefit the community and, (4) classical for schools program impacted 7,500 kids in 2014, inspiring them about the importance of arts education, and the benefit of a classical foundation within the arts through performance lecturers around the united states and canada.