Arts programs awarded grants for youth enrichment

A Fairmount Park cultural center, an African dance ensemble and a Chinatown arts group are among nine organizations that were awarded grants yesterday for their work with city youth.

The Philadelphia Cultural Fund announced a total of $357,700 through the Youth Arts Enrichment Grants program, which was established to support groups that use the arts to enhance the lives of city youth.

"This fund is our passion, the way we all get together as a cultural community and really help young people," said the cultural fund's president, Sara Garonzik, who is also executive director of the Philadelphia Theatre Company. "It can show [young people] the power of arts and culture."

The grants, which are funded by the city budget, recognized arts organizations that teach at-risk youth in order to help decrease youth violence, truancy and dropout rates.

"It gives the children something to do and it keeps them off the street, keeps them healthy," said Dorothy Wilkie, artistic director for Kulu Mele AfricanDance and Drum Ensemble, which was awarded $29,204.

Marlon Lewis, 15, a 10th-grader at School of the Future in Parkside, has worked with the West Park Cultural Center for two years. West Park, which got a $31,450 grant, uses performing arts to encourage academic achievement in underserved and impoverished communities.

"I actually thank West Park because they allowed me an opportunity that my school didn't or they gave us the opportunity to do stuff that we don't usually do," Lewis said.

The Asian Arts Initiative received $36,023 for the expansion of its "drop-in style" youth lounge arts workshop.

"We like to think of it as a safe space for youth to come and to express and grow their creative selves," Gayle Isa, the initiative's executive director, said, adding that she welcomes people of all backgrounds.

"Especially given some of the recent racial violence that has been highlighted in the media, it's really important to us, and I think to the city, to have opportunities for youth from African-American communities and Asian-American communities and other communities to be able to convene in a safe space together and to get to know each other as fellow aspiring artists and as human beings," she said.