About Yes! And…Collaborative Arts
A special thanks to Gerald and the folks at the PHILO Project for putting together our promotional video.
Our Mission
Yes! And... Collaborative Arts (YACA) is a youth-centered organization dedicated to amplifying voices, nurturing agency, and creating community through performing arts experiences. We believe youth should have no barriers when discovering their unique perspectives because the future depends on compassionate, curious, and courageous leaders.
As educators, we practice and teach a different way of interacting with kids, with each other, and with the world. We believe that children learn best when they are given the opportunity to engage with one another, the classroom content, and their own ideas in the context of a safe, affirming, and specific environment.
Our Core
We are intentional about the work we do with youth and with artists. We operate with the following values that we call our Core.
We operate collaboratively.
We work together, drawing on the strengths and insights of everyone in the room, to create and support our shared vision. Though there is a hierarchy within YACA, we endeavor in both the artistic and administrative work to make decisions collaboratively.
We are tribal.
A tribe is a group of people brought together and transformed by a common goal (imagined or otherwise). We foster the tribe, teach through the tribe, and honor the tribe. Each tribe looks different (from the messy/mystical camp to the more formal and administrative board) but each has its own culture, history, desires, and internal validity.
We are about imagination.
Thinking and creating imaginatively is always a part of the process, in the collaboration, education, and artistic moment.
We are about diversity.
We are dedicated to operating as an all inclusive organization. We work with a range of communities and with children with varied needs. Our staff and board reflect this commitment.
We commit to creative problem solving.
We want to always go above and beyond in each situation, always looking for new, different, and creative solutions. We hope and strive for collaborative relationships that may change but never end.
We are committed to our own “unnecessary” playfulness.
We will engage ourselves artistically and playfully. We might spend a significant amount of our time as a staff and board of directors doing the work that enables programs to flourish, teaching educators and artists about Tribe Centered Learning, but we commit to jumping into the play with children whenever possible.
We work with kids.
Children and youth centered programs will always be at the core of our organization. We stay committed to removing any barriers that would prevent a child or family from participation. Although this makes the work harder, longer, and more expensive, all children and communities are worth the risk and investment.
We are committed to internal professional development.
We work toward the development and refinement of our pedagogy, Tribe Centered Learning. YACA will always be looking for aspects of our curriculum, program models, and teaching styles that we can improve.
We believe that process takes precedence over product.
End of program presentations, be it a full length play, a movie, a mural, or a book of stories, is the celebration of the work to be shared with the broader community; it is not a measure of the work. Our hope is that our products will be excellent, but we believe that the most valuable mark of success is the quality of the process.
Our Name
Our name comes from a theater improv game where an individual starts a story and the next person picks up the telling by responding, “Yes! And...” then adding their part onto the story, and so on.
Collaboration is a vital skill for children to learn. It is much more powerful than compromise. Collaboration creates a space where vision, ideas, and desires are affirmed and can be achieved because people are working together.
When children understand that “Yes!” their ideas are supported “And...” there are people to partner with them, they have a stronger sense of self-worth.