The Arts

Programs in this core area enable youth to develop their creativity and cultural awareness through knowledge and appreciation of the visual arts, crafts, performing arts, and creative writing.

Visiting Historic Barker Mansion

Culture and arts are one of the Boys & Girls Club's focuses.

ImageMakers National Photography Program

This program encourages Club members ages 6-18, year round, to learn and practice black-and-white, color, digital, and alternative process photography. ImageMakers features a resource guide full of fun, creative activity ideas for three skill levels; a brief, user-friendly guide for advisors of small-group photography clubs; and an annual photography contest that provides local, regional, and national recognition. Club members' photographs selected at the contest's national level are exhibited at the BGCA National Conference and other events. Winners in the portfolio category receive college scholarships. Each winning artist's work is featured in a virtual gallery on the ImageMakers Web site, www.imagemakersbgca.org. The site also features resources, tools, and fun, interactive activities to enhance Club members' experience with photography.

“Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again. And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are? We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel? You must work, we must all work, to make the world worthy of its children.”

Pablo Picasso