Youth Art Month on March, 2025: anyone know a great performing arts school that's in L.A.?

March, 2025 is Youth Art Month 2025.

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The Los Angeles Music & Art School (LAMAS) established in 1945 is a non-profit organization providing quality and affordable arts education to East Los Angeles and the surrounding communities. Classes are offered year-round in music, dance, drama, art and graphic design. We are a multi-arts organization; our doors are open to anyone with a desire to explore their artistic talent regardless of age, talent, ability to pay or ethnic origin.

LAMAS is a cultural institution where generations have come to the arts. Our dedicated teachers and staff ensure that the Los Angeles Music & Art School provides a friendly and educational setting for all. The Los Angeles Music and Art School believes that the arts are for everyone and that education in the arts is essential to the emotional, physical and academic development of youth. We provide students with quality and affordable instruction in music, art, dance and drama regardless of financial means, age, artistic ability, or ethnic origin.

TODAY, LAMAS is a thriving and ever-expanding organization, serving nearly 1,000 students each month in a variety of arts education programs.

As public schools continue to face budget cutbacks, the programs offered by Los Angeles Music and Art School (LAMAS) serve a growing need for arts instruction in East Los Angeles and the surrounding community.

LAMAS provides opportunities for students to develop their artistic and educational strengths through its roster of year-round classes in music, art, dance, drama, and graphic design. The School's doors are open to anyone with a desire to explore their artistic talents, regardless of age, talent, ability to pay or ethnic origin. Tuition fees are kept affordable to meet the needs of the community, and partial and full scholarships are provided to students from low-income families who cannot afford the cost of lessons.

Our student demographics indicate that approximately 2% of our students are African American, 3% are Caucasian, 10% are Asian American, and 85% are Hispanic. The School is open for instruction six days per week (Mondays through Saturdays) and serves approximately 950 children and adults

each month, with a staff of over 40 dedicated and well-trained teachers and administrative staff members.

In addition to our core instructional programs, we sponsor the Camp LAMAS Summer Arts Enrichment Program, providing an eight-week multi-arts education program for youngsters 6-14 years of age.

The Future

Our current facility, which we own free and clear, is functioning at maximum capacity and unable to meet the community's demand for more classes and programs. To meet this growing need, LAMAS purchased the adjoining property in 2002 with a gift from Board president David Barry. Our goal is to develop a state-of-the-art facility that will allow us to expand the scope of our programs and serve an additional 400-500 students per month.

LAMAS has launched a five-year Capital Campaign to raise $3,000,000 to design and construct a two-story, 22,000 square foot facility which will integrate 11,000 square feet of our current structure. The plans include the remodeling of our current building to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act, replacement of the antiquated air conditioning system, elevator access, and increased parking facilities. The new facility will provide 31 classrooms for individual and group instruction in music, art, dance and drama, as well as:

Multipurpose Activity Center

Administrative Wing

First Floor Registration/Gallery Space

Early Childhood Arts Wing

Arts Technology Center

Multimedia Resource Library

Conference Room/Homework Lab

Upstairs Waiting Area/Art Gallery Space

Instrument and Equipment Storage

Over the next five years, LAMAS will reach out to government agencies, corporations, foundations and individuals to make our goal of creating a lasting cultural institution in the heart of East Los Angeles. In our first, unofficial year of our Capital

campaign, we have raised over $1.1 million.

Your support will make a tremendous difference. For further information regarding the Capital Campaign and naming opportunities, please contact Executive Director Isela Sotelo by phone at 323-262-7734 or by e-mail at isotelo@lamusart.org. If you would like to make a donation, download and print our donation form.You may also donate online below.

What should an art teacher know to set up a community display?

We just had our all-school art show at our local mall, and for me it was best to keep all the students' artworks from all of this year in a class portfolio (I also have cubbyholes divided by grade).* My assistant and I sorted the work so that on a specific day, I could give one child back all five pieces of artwork from the year, then I ask them to pick and hold up the one they want to use. I believe this gives them more choice and involvement in the show, and it makes for a great variety of work while guaranteeing that the child is proud of their work on display. Then, when you have the "Third Grade" area, you have 5 different types of 3rd grade work on display rather than just a million versions of the same class project.

I also pre-made labels with our school's logo, the name of the show, and a space for the grade in the corner. I just used Avery Labels I bought at Office Max and we printed them at school. It made all of the work in the show have so much more unity, and it guaranteed that both me and the parents could find the child's artwork easily and clearly (once you know what artwork you're doing, you just peel the label and stick it in the corner of the artwork). I wrote the number for the grade in my "teacher handwriting," then had the kids write their name themselves in class a few weeks before the show. It made it cuter and a lot more personal (especially for the younger grades...for PK and Nursery we put their names in parentheses below). I color coded the names, too - for example, everyone in 2nd grade used a red marker, everyone in 5th used blue, etc. etc. etc. It made things easy to sort and find.

Finally, harness parent power! We had one day before to put everything up, so once I was sure I had all the artwork sorted by class and labeled, I had parents help me matte work on construction paper and double-check rosters to make sure we had everyone. I started asking for volunteers a few weeks before the show in our weekly parent newsletter, and had them come the day before and the day we hung the work.

*I keep all of the kids' work on Artsonia (which I would HIGHLY recommend) so the parents still know what's going on.

Good luck on your "new" career!

Where can I find some art or writing contests for youth?

Nanawrimo is fantastic.

Except it's a writing compition for a month only on November.

Also, there is drawctober- on October.

www.nanawrimo.org