Youth in Arts

Youth in Arts was founded in 1970 by local arts advocates dismayed by diminishing resources available for arts education in California schools. Our mission is to provide students with experiences and instruction in the visual and performing arts, and to enrich the community with cultural events.  Our programs are based upon the belief that a child’s balanced development and education must include the arts.

Youth in Arts provides in-school and after-school arts instruction and performances for serves over 30,000 preK-12 students each year, primarily in the North San Francisco Bay Area.

Our programs range from year-round visual and performing arts activities at schools that would otherwise have no arts for students to tailored residencies integrating specific visual and performing art forms from around the world with school, grade-level or classroom curriculum. We offer live performances onstage and via school assemblies, as well as "Travel the World" art days and workshops, professional development workshops for teachers and training for parents in utilizing the arts to support children's healthy development. We are the home organization for `Til Dawn, an advanced high school a cappella vocal ensemble that performs throughout the region. We also operate YIA Gallery, the only art gallery in Northern California fully dedicated to showing youth artists' work.