SIUE Alum Accepts National Honor on behalf of St. Louis ArtWorks
Priscilla Block, BFA ’96, executive director of St. Louis ArtWorks, accepted the 2016 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award (NAHYP) in November. (Former) First Lady Michelle Obama presided over a special ceremony at the White House.
The NAHYP Award is the highest national honor for youth programs and was presented to 12 organizations. According to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, the award recognizes the programs for using engagement in the arts and the humanities to generate a wide range of positive outcomes, including increases in academic achievement, growth in graduation and college enrollment rates, and improvements in literacy and language abilities, communication and performance skills, and cultural awareness.
“We believe that every single child has boundless promise, no matter who they are, where they come from, or how much money their parents have,” said Mrs. Obama during the awards ceremony. “And it is important to our continued greatness to see these kids as ours – not as ‘them,’ not as ‘other,’ but as ours. And that’s really the power of programs like these. That’s the message that they send to our young people every single day.”
St. Louis ArtWorks is a year-round job training program using art as a tool to teach essential life and job skills to underserved St. Louis youth. Ninety percent of St. Louis ArtWorks’ participants graduate high school and plan to attend college, which is a significantly higher rate than their classmates.
“Our primary goal is to strengthen our apprentices’ core skills in science, technology, engineering, art and math, exposing them to a variety of careers,” said Block. “We hope this award will draw attention to the documented fact that programs like ours are essential investments not just in the lives of our young people, but in our community as well. We’re incredibly proud of this achievement and of the young people, volunteers, supporters, board, and staff who made it possible.”