NATIONAL YOUNGARTS FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES CALL FOR 2015 APPLICATIONS; Artists 15-18 Years Old or in Grades 10-12 Encouraged To Apply From April 22 to October 17, 2014

Vanessa Leitman
National YoungArts Foundation
305-377-1140
[email protected]

Megan V. Sprenger
Polskin Arts & Communications Counselors
212-593-5889
[email protected]

NATIONAL YOUNGARTS FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES
CALL FOR 2015 APPLICATIONS

Artists 15-18 Years Old or in Grades 10-12 Encouraged To Apply
From April 22 to October 17, 2014

This Year Inaugurates Singer/Songwriter Subcategory of Voice Discipline

MIAMI, FL (APRIL 22, 2014) – Today the National YoungArts Foundation (YoungArts), the non-profit organization that recognizes and nurtures the nation’s most talented young artists in the visual, literary, design and performing arts, announced that applications for 2015 will be available online at http://www.youngarts.org/apply from April 22, 2014 through October 17, 2014. Young artists—between the ages of 15 and 18 or in high school grades 10-12 (as of December 1, 2014)—across the nation are encouraged to apply.

This year, students will also have the opportunity to be recognized as a Singer/Songwriter within the Voice discipline. As with other categories of Winners, these Singer/Songwriters will now be able to work closely with and be mentored by renowned leaders in their field and will be exposed to a wide-variety of other field-related experiences meant to encourage them to pursue a career in the arts.

For 33 years, YoungArts has been identifying and supporting the next generation of artists, and contributing to the cultural vitality of the nation by investing in the artistic development of talented young people. By providing promising artists with life-changing experiences with renowned mentors, access to significant scholarships, national recognition, and other opportunities throughout their careers, YoungArts helps ensure that the nation’s most outstanding emerging artists are encouraged to pursue careers in the arts.

“Applying to our program is the first step to taking advantage of the unique opportunities YoungArts has to offer and joining an inspiring network of more than 20,000 alumni who understand and support each other’s dreams of becoming a professional artist” said Paul T. Lehr, National YoungArts Foundation’s President and CEO.  “In 2014, these opportunities included the chance to participate in the Emmy-nominated HBO YoungArts MasterClass, exhibit work at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, perform at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and New World Center, and be mentored by leaders in their fields at our campus in Miami and around the country.  As we look to 2015 we are excited to offer life changing experiences like these to a whole new class of YoungArts Winners.”

“We are excited that by adding a Singer/Songwriter subcategory of Voice, we are able to respond to the requests of many of our participants and applicants,” said Lisa Leone, National YoungArts Foundation Vice President of Artistic Programs. “While we have always had singers and songwriters in our programs, we are now able to offer them more tailored experiences in order to help them become masters in the field.”

Eligibility and Award Information
To be eligible for recognition by YoungArts, applicants must be between the ages of 15 and 18 or in high school grades 10-12 (as of December 1, 2014), a United States citizen or international student studying on a student visa, and must demonstrate excellence in the visual, literary, performing or design arts. YoungArts Winners are selected annually through a blind adjudication process and are designated into three categories, Finalist, Honorable Mention, and Merit. Finalists and Honorable Mention Winners receive monetary recognition from the National YoungArts Foundation. All Winners are eligible to participate in YoungArts’ regional programs–YoungArts Miami, YoungArts Los Angeles and YoungArts New York–space permitting and in the Emmy-nominated HBO series YoungArts MasterClass. YoungArts Winners also receive access to college scholarships, fellowships, and ongoing opportunities to perform and exhibit their work through YoungArts’ professional contacts and partnerships with some of the leading arts institutions in the nation, as well as a certificate and medallion of achievement and a recommendation letter.

All applicants have the choice to be added to the YoungArts Student List Service (SLS), a subscription service that provides college, university and conservatory admissions representatives with applicant’s basic contact and school information along with links to each student’s audition portfolio, providing them with important information about the student’s artistic achievements.

If students have any questions, they can reach programming staff at (305) 377-1140 or [email protected].

YoungArts Week and Regional Programs
Approximately 170 of the year’s Finalists from across the nation are invited to YoungArts Week in Miami in January, where they participate in a week of intensive master classes and workshops with internationally renowned artists. Finalists also have the opportunity to share their work each evening in performances, readings, exhibitions and screenings that are open to the public. During YoungArts Week, students are further evaluated and awards of up to $10,000 are determined. Nominations for the 2015 U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts, the highest award that can be given to any artistically talented high school senior in the United States, are also made.

Modeled after the transformative experience of YoungArts Week, programs across the country in New York, Los Angeles and Miami, extend recognition, resources and opportunities to YoungArts Winners nationwide. All Winners are eligible to participate in YoungArts regional programs, space permitting. During regional programs, participants are further evaluated and are eligible for special awards up to $5,000.

2014 YoungArts Winners
Selected out of approximately 11,000 applications, 687 YoungArts Winners were recognized for their outstanding work across the visual, literary, design and performing arts fields. A complete list of the 2014 Winners is available here: 2014 YoungArts Winners.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL YOUNGARTS FOUNDATION
The National YoungArts Foundation was established in 1981 by Lin and Ted Arison to identify and support the next generation of artists and to contribute to the cultural vitality of the nation by investing in the artistic development of talented young artists in the visual, literary, and performing arts. With the guidance of YoungArts Artistic Advisors Plácido Domingo, Frank Gehry, Bill T. Jones and others, YoungArts provides these emerging artists with life-changing experiences and validation by renowned mentors, access to significant scholarships, national recognition, and other opportunities throughout their careers to help ensure that the nation’s most outstanding emerging artists are encouraged to pursue careers in the arts.

To date, YoungArts has honored more than 20,000 young artists with over $6 million in monetary awards; facilitated in excess of $150 million in scholarship opportunities; and enabled its participants to work with some of the most distinguished artists, such as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Plácido Domingo, Renee Fleming, Frank Gehry, Denyce Graves, Bill T. Jones, Quincy Jones, Joan Lader, Rosie Perez, Robert Redford, Martin Scorsese, Marisa Tomei, Kathleen Turner, and Rebecca Walker.  In addition, at the request of the Commission on Presidential Scholars, which is appointed by the President of the United States, YoungArts serves as the exclusive nominating agency for the U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts, the country’s highest honor for young artists. Presidential Scholars in the Arts receive a Presidential Medal at the White House and perform at the Kennedy Center and exhibit at the Smithsonian.

YoungArts alumni who have become leading professionals in their fields include actors Vanessa Williams, Viola Davis, Anna Gunn, Kerry Washington, and Adrian Grenier; four-time Tony Award nominee Raúl Esparza; Chief Executive Officer of American Ballet Theatre Rachel Moore; recording artists Josh Groban, Judith Hill, Nicki Minaj and Chris Young; Metropolitan Opera star Eric Owens; musicians Terence Blanchard and Jennifer Koh; choreographer Desmond Richardson; visual artist Hernan Bas; and internationally acclaimed multimedia artist Doug Aitken.

YoungArts is working with world-renowned architect and YoungArts Artistic Advisor Frank Gehry to transform the recently acquired former Bacardi Tower and Museum buildings and three and a half acre campus into its national headquarters to support expanded local activities in Miami and across the country. The campus will be a multidisciplinary arts complex with a new Gehry-designed performing arts center and park with state-of-the-art sound and video capabilities. The campus will host year-round programming including master classes, public screenings and performances, artists in residence, and visual arts exhibitions guest curated by institutions based in Miami, New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere.  Since opening the campus for programming in November 2013, YoungArts has debuted the European classical music phenomenon Yellow Lounge in partnership with Universal Music; held a salon with Marina Abramović and partnered in the world premiere of the 3-D film installation A Portrait of Marina Ambramović; hosted Olafur Eliasson and his Little Sun installation as the debut show in the YoungArts Gallery in partnership with MoMA PS1 and Fondation Beyeler; exhibited Robert Indiana’s One, Two, and Seven sculptures on the YoungArts campus plaza; presented the world premiere of The Way of the Rain Miami, a collaborative performance art piece by Sibylle Szaggars Redford and held a salon with Robert and Sibylle Szaggars Redford moderated by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Dennis School; held a master class for local music students with Jazz great Wynton Marsalis; and hosted more than 800 guests for the annual YoungArts Performance and Gala on the campus for the first time.

For more information, visit www.youngarts.org. To watch a brief video about YoungArts, click here.