My personal vision for ArtsZone is to provide the youth of Elizabeth City/Pasquotank County, North Carolina with authentic learning experiences that engage their minds, spirits, bodies and souls. As a practicing artist and educator, the arts are integral parts of learning process. I strongly believe that the arts should be central to the learning environment. When this occurs, schools, communities and other settings become places of exploration and discovery of ideas. Ideas become critical to learning, and the ability to generate ideas, to bring ideas to life and to communicate them in the most articulate and profound ways is what the arts represent.

The arts connect students to themselves, each other and the community. Youth exposed to the arts feel "connected" in ways that are deeper and more meaningful than the typical "forced choice" concepts in academics. Engagement in the arts nurtures the development of cognitive, social and personal competencies.

Our youtharts programs are designed to reach children in ways that are unprecedented. Research has proven that students often become high-achievers in learning settings that incorporate the arts. Success in the arts becomes a bridge to learning and the path to eventual success in other areas of learning. Most importantly, the arts are Fun! Let's get our youth engaged in creative processes that are exciting and full of ideas.

This is a great opportunity for the community to invest in our youth by supporting these qualitative art experiences. Your commitment will allow us to engage our local youth in creative and cultural endeavors that foster civic participation, boost self-esteem and strengthen the role of arts as a community building mechanism.

Please join us as we connect the arts and the community.

Tunde Afolayan
Executive Director