Welcome to the new YoungArts website! We are so excited about our new look and hope you will find this site more interactive and easier to navigate. This website is a key part of our vision for the future of YoungArts, and we will be using it as a tool to digitally enrich and support the arts while giving you an all access pass to the exceptional artists with whom we work. Video, photos, music and a brand new blog are just some of the elements I am happy to be sharing with you.

On Saturday, May 15, we celebrated the kick-off of our newest regional program, YoungArts Miami, with an Open Call event at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. The day welcomed high school juniors, their parents, teachers from Miami-Dade schools and other special guests. Everyone enjoyed a performance by amazing YoungArts alumni, as well as a dialogue with YoungArts President & CEO and alumni about what it takes to achieve excellence in the arts, what YoungArts Miami has planned, and what’s in it for you!

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced the selection of 141 outstanding high school seniors as the 2010 U.S. Presidential Scholars. The students have demonstrated outstanding academic achievement, artistic excellence, leadership, citizenship, service, and contribution to school and community. U.S. Presidential Scholars will be honored for their accomplishments in Washington D.C., from June 19-22.

Funding for the arts in America may be dismal, but the talent in our high schools isn’t! “MASTERCLASS,” the new HBO series set to premiere Sunday, April 18, presents nine world-class creative artists who are serving as YoungArs Master Teachers, sharing their arts and their life experience with YoungArts students. Each edition of MASTERCLASS highlights the importance of mentorship, allowing emerging young artists to meet and work with legends in the fields where they aspire to become legends themselves.