"The arts, by virtue of their very nature, carried a particular power for learning achievement both in the arts themselves and in closely related competencies upon whih successful performance and knowledge in the arts depends…Outcomes reveal that involvement in art-based youth organizations led to an intensity of certain characteristics among the young participants including motivation, persistence, critically analysis, and planning. Young people at art sites were more likely to win an academic honor than youth from a national sample of students across the U.S. as measured by the National Educational Longitudinal Survey. They were also more likely to say that they plan to continue education after high school and to be recognized for community service and school attendance…Close examination of how the arts work at the level of everyday interactions in effective youth organizations reveals that the arts promote cognitive, linguistic, socio-relational, and managerial capacities. These achievements are mediated through risks of imagination and interactions, rules that guide but always change, and demands that create identities based in resourcefulness and accomplishment. All artists – especially the young – must be willing to make a leap of commitment. This step involves risks of greater variety than those required to go out for basketball or work on a neighborhood teen board.”

Shirley Brice Heath, quoted from a 10 year study of 120
youth organizations outside of schools in 34 urban and rural
areas, involving 30,000 youth.

     The Bauen Camp interest in research is focused in three areas: (1) use of the arts as a critical tool in positive youth development, including social and cultural awareness and the role of aesthetic development in the cognitive growth of young people; (2) the application of play theory to programming which will integrate the concept of play as a way to discover the world, increasing creativity (following Jessica Holt's MA thesis research); and (3) use of the resident camp as a critical tool for generating creative, diverse, socially responsible and democratic young artists and communities.

     The last decade has produced an abundance of research affirming the power of the arts as vehicles to build strong youth and healthy communities. Several studies are worth specific mention.

     Between 1991 and 1996, Harvard Project Zero – a research group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education – conducted a two-phase research project, known as Project Co-Arts, to develop and test a self-assessment model for organizations implementing arts-based youth programs. The resulting model, known as the Co-Arts Assessment Plan, provides a framework that community arts centers and other educational institutions can use to document and assess the educational effectiveness of the arts-based youth programs. Co-Arts identified the following unifying themes concerning the educational effectiveness of community arts programs:

•  power of art to transform and/or articulate personal identities
•  cultivation of strong relationships among constituents (teachers, students, parents, staff)
•  knowledge of and attention to the interests and needs of the communities served
•  provision of enduring safe havens for students and families
•  attention to own process of development and transformation

     Shirley Brice Heath's 10 year study with Milbrey W. McLaughin is also a frequently cited document measuring effective and desirable learning environments for youth outside of school, supporting the strength of the arts in these environments. Other of her studies affirm the special power of the arts in positive youth development among at-risk youth. More recent studies, by Americans for the Arts and the Presidents Committee on the Arts and Humanities in cooperation with The GE Fund and the MacArthur Foundation, show that the arts, and the integration of creativity with community, provide a forum where dialogue about issues and ideas is easier to develop and delves deeper into the issues. See “Animating Democracy: Artistic Imagination as a Force in Civic Dialogue, published by Americans for the Arts in cooperation with the Ford Foundation. The President Committee published a study – “Champions of Change: The Impact of Arts on Learning” which affirmed that learning experiences based on the arts provide greater access to higher levels of achievement in all areas of life.

     In 1998, the YouthARTS Development Project was born, studying the use of art as a preventative in the lives of at-risk  youth.  The study was sponsored by a consortium, among it the National Endowment for the Arts, The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in the US Department of Justice, the Nathan Commings Foundation, Americans for the Arts and local organizations in Oregon, Texas, Georgia and Virginia. Results of their study shows that, " After vigorous evaluation, we know for certain that art programs designed specifically for youth at risk can alter the course of troubled lifes."   The project had seven goals: (1) to define the critical elements and 'best practices' of arts programs designed for at-risk youth populations; (2) to design and test program evaluation methodologies; (3) to conduct a rigous evaluation at three pilot sites of the impact of arts programs on adolewscent behavior and the risk and protective factors associated with behavioral problems and delingqu3ncy; (4) to design and test models of professional development and training that prepare artists to work with at-risk youth populations and that prepare artists, social service staff, juvenile justice professionals, and educators to work collaboratively in developing and implementing arts programs for youth at risk; (5) to strengthen collaborative relationships among local and federal partners; (6) to disseminate 'best practice' models to arts, social service, and juvenile justice program providers nationwide; (7) to leverage increased funding for at-risk youth programs. Report of the study and accompanying videos can be obtained from the Americans for the Arts.

     Linda Burnham and Steven Durland, co-founders of the Community Arts Network and Art in the Public Interest, continue to provide at the CAN website much current research and news affirming the power of the arts in building a better world. The website is a ‘must-read' - at least on a monthly basis - for any of us working with art and youth and community.