Other nonprofit organizations are helping to bolster the humanities for MPS students. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) received a grant of $10,000, down from $30,000 last year. Still, the non-partisan civil-rights organization hopes to serve about the same number of students as last year’s 2,700.
Emilio De Torre, youth and programs director for the ACLU of Wisconsin, oversees the Public Arts Student Alliance (PASA), which is funded in part by the grant. The program is run at several schools, including North Division and True Skool, and at local groups that serve youths, such as Pathfinders. It combines aspects of humanities and art to help teach young people about their civil liberties and rights in exciting new ways, according to De Torre.
“Arts combined with humanities is a very powerful way to transmit this information,” De Torre said.
Last year PASA successfully meshed the disciplines, creating a float for the Summer of Peace Parade and Rally. The float, four SUVs long, featured a representation of students going through actual pipes to jail, according to De Torre. The figurative message of pipelines to incarceration contrasted with another section of the float depicting happy children with supportive teachers choosing careers and professions.
“Creating art around an idea like a prison pipeline was a way to help the youth express an issue, better understand it and get people talking about it,” said Chloe Smith, youth and program organizer for the ACLU.
Smith, who graduated in 2003 from Riverside before heading to UW-Whitewater, said, she saw a significant drop in the availability of arts education for local students when she returned to Milwaukee.
“Art was the only way I was able to express myself as a student, so knowing that kids aren’t able to express themselves in that way makes me want to rally harder for programs like this,” Smith said.
The PASA program will run 26 workshops this year with high school students, ranging from the First Amendment to political cartooning to creating public service announcements, among other activities.
De Torre said the PASA program does more than simply fill a gap.
“The nature of these partnership programs is that they afford students the opportunity to work with talented individuals and gain experiences and values from the community and in the community that they might not get from just one art teacher.”