When A Kid’s Place program operations supervisor Mary Dozier told Straz Center instructors that most of her children had no experience with the arts – in any of its forms – the instructors knew just what to do. They introduced them to a little bit of everything.
A Kid's Place is a nonprofit foster care home dedicated to providing a warm and stable environment for children from birth to age eighteen. They are one of 47 underserved organizations that receive customized art-based outreach programming through Straz Center’s Arts Education Partnership Program. The curriculum is tailored to each organization’s needs and interests and delivered by Straz Center professional teaching artists. Thanks to donor support, the year-long program is entirely free for participants.
During the first visit to A Kid’s Place, a contemporary dance instructor beckoned even the most reluctant participants onto the dance floor. The group explored dance as a form of self-expression and emotional release. “Even I was swept up in the movement,” Mary says.
For one program, Mary loaded up a van and the kids headed to Straz. There, they worked on collaboration skills, learning the basics of art and painting together on large canvases during an interactive mural workshop.
Next came the opera singers. "I didn’t tell the children there would be opera singers," she recalls, "I told them that there's going to be a group that's coming, and they're going to sing. At first, their eyes rolled. But when they heard them sing, they were captivated. They had never heard anything like that."
Through generous gifts from Straz Center donors, twelve young women from A Kid’s Place, ages 12-17, got dressed up, attended a preshow lunch at Straz’s onsite restaurant, and attended the Broadway production of Jesus Christ Superstar.
As the program progressed, Mary witnessed the transformative power of the arts firsthand. “Foster kids come to us traumatized. We’re showing them that there’s a softer side to life. We don’t know where they’ll go when they leave us, but we’ve planted a seed.”