Music & Arts Sponsorship Program Launches
Ride the Wave, a Bermuda charity founded in 2012 to support access and exposure to music and the Arts for young people in Bermuda, is launching its music and arts sponsorship program on Tuesday September 16th at 12pm.
“The sponsorship program seeks to provide extra-curricular opportunities in music and the arts for young children in Bermuda, who otherwise would not have access to involvement in music and arts,” they explained.
“RTW will use funds raised through its events and funds donated from the public to provide sponsorship for interested youth to enroll in up to three terms of extra curricular classes in music, art, drama, or dance. Youth will be accepted on a referral basis only from partners agencies including the Department of Child and Family Services.
“This is a needs-based program that hopes to provide young people with opportunities in music and the arts so that we encourage a new generation of artists that can pursue their creative passions.
“They will also benefit from the additional advantages that are proven to be connected to involvement in the arts including improved social skills, improved academics, and increased civic participation. Involvement in the arts will help greater numbers of young people in Bermuda explore their passions and reach their greatest potential.
“This is a significant gap in Bermuda and thus is a critically important program. Despite the existence of extensive evidenced-based research to support the importance of the arts, in particular for at risk young people, the arts remain on the margins of education, often the last to be added and the first to be dropped in times of strained budgets and shifting priorities. In Bermuda this is certainly the case.
“Ride the Wave has an ambitious goal of supporting 100 children starting in the Winter term of this upcoming academic year. Ride the Wave hopes to raise a minimum of $70,000 in order to support 100 children.
“Individuals can support this effort by attending the September 19th Lennon Peace Day concert, where proceeds will be the primary source of funding for the sponsorship program. Additionally the community can donate directly towards the sponsorship program.”
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Thank Goodness for this! I have been feeling as if the arts were fading away from my Bermuda. Business is important, but I feared it was completely taking over Bermuda’s identity. We need musicians and painters. And dancers! And we need them to want to better themselves and have a desire to come back. Young student with a desire to become better in their art tend to leave the island and never come back because there is nothing here for them.
Also, as a young woman growing up in Bermuda and experiencing both sides of public and private education I have to say that the Arts programs in the public schools are found lacking. Slow & Steady Bermuda! Slow & Steady.