The Arts

Programs in this area enable youth to develop their creativity and cultural awareness through knowledge and appreciation of visual arts, crafts, sculpture, 3D art, digital and graphic arts, photography, digital music, dance and performing arts, applied arts and more.

National Arts Exhibit Program

Thank you for viewing Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Minnesota’s local fine arts exhibit. This is the annual culmination of a year-long program encouraging artistic expression among Club members in grades K-12th through multiple art forms, including visual arts like drawing and painting, sculpture, 3D art, digital and graphic arts, photography, digital music, dance and performing arts, applied arts and more.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Minnesota has full- and part-time artist mentors on staff at each of our Clubs in the areas of visual arts, dance, fashion and digital arts. We also have dedicated arts staff at each KIDSTOP site. Through arts programming, our goal is to provide daily opportunities to empower youth to express themselves creatively and develop a more positive self-identity.

The National Arts Exhibit is the premier opportunity for Boys & Girls Clubs of America to recognize and highlight our members’ creative accomplishments. Such culminating events are fundamental components of high-quality arts programs. In fact, recognition is one of BGCA’s Five Key Elements for Positive Youth Development.

A panel of judges will select works for submission to Boys & Girls Clubs of American’s annual National Fine Arts Exhibit, which is displayed throughout the ensuing year at BGCA events, including the national Conference. Each winning artist’s work is featured in a virtual gallery on BGCA’s website.

Youth Arts Initiative

The Youth Arts Initiative (YAI) was launched in 2014 in partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the Wallace Foundation to test and prove the 10 Success Principles for High Quality Arts Programming in our Clubs. Today, YAI is provided at each of the three Clubs. We offer dance and fashion design at the Eastside Club, visual arts and digital arts programming at the Southside Club, and visual arts and digital technology at the Roosevelt Club. Culinary arts is also offered at each of the Clubs at various times throughout the year. Learn more about YAI here.

Digital Arts Suite

Club Tech’s suite of self-directed arts courseware consists of Web Tech, Design Tech, Photo Tech and music Tech. Movie Tech contains detailed instructor materials for teaching members to write screenplays and facilitating the hands-on process of filming and editing digital movies. After members have participated in these programs, they can submit their digital artwork to the annual Digital Arts Festivals competitions. The festivals celebrate Club members’ creativity in five areas – web design, graphic design, photo illustration, music composition and movie making – and provide Club members with recognition at the local, regional and national levels.

Fine arts activities are made possible, in part, by the voters of Minnesota through grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and Central Minnesota Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.