The Burlington School District continues to partner with Young Audiences of Colorado to participate in the Colorado YouthReach Project, funded by the Colorado Council on the Arts (CCA) via the National Endowment for the Arts YouthReach initiative. The goal of this project is to provide educationally rich and high quality arts experiences to middle and high school migrant students in Burlington, Colorado.

The YouthReach project is focusing specifically on working with over 40 migrant students in 8-12^th grade in after school workshops. Professional YAC teaching artists work in-residence, modeling their work and working with students on a variety of projects. Professional theatre artists Betsy Tobin and Gwylym Cano will be in residence this winter. Each residency ends with a culminating event for students to share their projects with the community. This spring, Burlington will be hosting two additional artists-in-residence in the disciplines of music and dance, who will be providing students with four more weeks of exciting hands-on after-school workshops.

Students are given the opportunity to share in-depth arts experiences and interact with professional teaching artists in a variety of disciplines including puppetry, mask-making, music and dance. Students develop their artistic skills through hands-on activities, gain an increased sense of pride and self-esteem, cultivate leadership and entrepreneurial skills, and provide Burlington with the opportunity to recognize the value of these student’s contributions to the Burlington community. This entire project is being directed by Young Audiences of Colorado, funded by the CCA and is free of charge to all participants.

Committed to the highest artistic quality, Young Audiences enables students and their teachers to experience the arts, to learn from professional artists, and to understand the role of the arts in the creative process and in educational excellence.