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Young Audiences Partners with International Community School to Raise Funds for Arts Programming

- Children Experience Arts in Their Schools with Community Support -

ATLANTA, January 17, 2012 – Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center (YA), Georgia’s leading provider of in-school arts-in-education programming, today announced that it has partnered with the International Community School (ICS) in DeKalb County to help raise money to bring arts programming to ICS students.

Funds will be raised through Young Audiences' new membership program. By becoming a member for $50, an individual becomes an Arts Advocate and a member of Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center. Half of the dollars raised fund the delivery of arts-based educational programming at ICS and the second half helps YA create and deliver programs that impact literacy and inspire education through the arts. Arts Advocates also receive discounts at the other Woodruff Art Center’s divisions: Alliance Theatre, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the High Museum of Art in addition to other member advantages. By becoming an Arts Advocate, individuals help bring the arts to students at the International Community School and other schools that Young Audiences serves throughout Georgia. Arts Advocates can also designate other schools to benefit from 50 percent of the membership funding and build their own cultural arts fund.

“We fiercely protect our students’ right to music and art while insisting that they meet progress requirements in language arts, social studies, mathematics, and earth science,” said Dr. Laurent Ditmann, principal of International Community School. “Being a designated recipient of Young Audiences’ membership program will allow us to do just that. Young Audiences’ art programs are designed to integrate with school curriculum and are aligned with Common Core Georgia’s Performance Standards so our children are experiencing the arts while learning at the same time.”

ICS is a kindergarten through sixth grade charter and International Baccalaureate World School, advancing the promise of America by cultivating voice, courage, and hope in refugee, immigrant, and local students in the Decatur, Georgia area. Roughly half of ICS students are immigrants or refugees, many of them child survivors of war. The other half of the students are native-born Americans from surrounding neighborhoods.

“Our new membership program will help us fulfill our mission to transform the lives of Georgia’s young people through the arts,” said Charisse M. Williams, president of Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center. “By becoming an Arts Advocate, community members and other schools join us as we work towards a future in which young people will have the opportunity and desire to engage in quality arts learning experiences that increase creativity, build cultural awareness, and enhance the development of their learning and life skills.”

For more information on how to become a member of Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center, contact emily.siegesmund@woodruffcenter.org.

About Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center
Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center is an affiliate of the nation’s largest arts-in-education organization, Young Audiences, Inc. and Georgia’s leading provider of educational arts programming.  Since 1983, Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center has pursued its mission – to transform the lives and learning of young people through the arts – by bringing the power of live arts experiences in music, dance, theatre, literary, and visual arts to young people from preschool through high school.  Each year the organization’s curriculum-based programs reach more than 500,000 students in schools, recreation centers, libraries, museums, and other community venues throughout the state of Georgia.

About Woodruff Arts Center
Over the past 40 years, The Woodruff Arts Center has distinguished itself as one of the premier cultural centers in the nation, a unique institutional model where individual arts institutions unite to form a collaborative, inspirational, and supportive environment for the arts and education. The Woodruff Arts Center campus, located in the heart of Midtown Atlanta houses four renowned arts organizations - Alliance Theatre, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, High Museum of Art, and Young Audiences.

Since 1968, The Woodruff Arts Center has served more than 30 million patrons and annually offers more than 3,300 performances and exhibitions. In addition to its role as a cultural beacon and hub of the Southeast, The Woodruff serves as a critical economic, educational, and social catalyst for Atlanta and the region.  For more, visit www.woodruffcenter.org.

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