Michelle Obama and young African American students painting a mural on a brick wall

Outset Lady Michelle Obama participates in the Butterfly Garden Mural Project in April at Reed Elementary Schoolhouse in Washington, DC, with help from Sitar Arts Center students. Photo by Andre Dylewski

When Kickoff Lady Michelle Obama recently painted a mural at DC'due south Reed Unproblematic, she worked with students from Reed and also from the nearby Sitar Arts Eye. Working next with Mrs. Obama was Angel Perez, a junior at the Duke Ellington School for the Arts who has taken classes at the heart since he was ten years one-time.

"She was right next to me," said Perez. "It was a great award. She asked advice about painting her butterfly and she asked me about my family and how my parents felt about Mexico…. And she asked me near my art show."

Apparently the First Lady had heard about the eighteen-year-sometime's testify at the Sitar Eye. He'd applied -- a two-yr process -- and was accepted to the heart'south Cafritz Gallery for a show chronicling ten years of his progress as an artist in various media.

Smiling African American female students working on a mural on a brick wall

Students, like Angel Perez (foreground), study various art activities, such every bit mural painting, at the Sitar Arts Center. Photo by Andre Dylewski

One of many inspiring stories from the center, Perez says he owes his success to Sitar, which received a 2009 Coming Upward Taller award from the President'south Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. According to Perez, to him, "Information technology's like a second domicile. It's a prophylactic place where I can work in peace, in my own zone, on my ain basis. Information technology'south a place I tin can acquire something new."

In 2010 the Sitar Arts Eye celebrated its tenth anniversary with well-nigh 500 students -- more than than eighty percent of which are from disadvantaged families -- roughly 150 volunteers, and a wide assortment of class offerings including ballet, salsa, sculpture, and artistic writing, all at a state-of-the-art, x,000-square-foot facility at 1700 Kalorama, NW. In that location are classes for early babyhood development, which brainwash both the young child and their parents. And Fridays are now reserved for teens and include a lot of field trips. Corking for a program that began in a basement with 50 students and a handful of volunteers.

Rocco Landesman, Michelle Obama, Sitar staff and students with some of the murals behind them

NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman (left) also participated in the Butterfly Garden Mural Project. Photograph by Andre Dylewski

In the late 1990s Rhonda Buckley, a professional musician helping out at Good Shepherd Ministries' day care program, decided to offer flute and saxophone lessons to the program's children. That program eventually blossomed into the Sitar Arts Center, which Buckley started in 2000 with help from grant writer Maureen Dwyer. The middle is named for Patricia M. Sitar, who -- as a single woman with four children -- started Skillful Shepherd Ministries in 1986.

Bessy Guevara, 27, was nine years old when Buckley started teaching at Good Shepherd. She remembered information technology existence fun but a bit chaotic. "We would practice at her desk while fiddling children were running around." Guevara followed Buckley to Sitar. Recognizing Guevara's talent, Buckley helped her obtain a scholarship at DC's prestigious Levine School of Music and after at Sidwell Friends for high school, all while notwithstanding participating in classes at Sitar. Guevara -- now a lath member and regular volunteer at the arts center -- went on to earn a degree from Bryn Mawr College.

"The Sitar Center is a life-irresolute and life-saving experience," said Guevara whose immigrant El Salvadorean family lived in a section of DC known for gang violence and teen pregnancies. "At Sitar I constitute an haven. My parents could just do and so much. They were struggling to put food on the table. What I learned at Sitar immune me to appreciate fine art, other cultures, and a lot more."

Although Buckley has since left Sitar -- she'due south now associate dean for outreach and engagement at the Michigan Country Academy College of Music -- the neighborhood oasis she helped create is going potent. One of the middle'south strengths is its blueprint. The practice dance floor is made from the aforementioned cloth equally the Washington Ballet'due south trip the light fantastic toe flooring. There are practice rooms for every kind of musical instrument, and a digital sound lab boasts state-of-the-fine art computers.

Co-ordinate to Maureen Dwyer, now the center's deputy manager, the quality of the facility and its equipment says a lot about the center's mission. "Sitar values children, and it lets them know that every footstep of the way. Function of the reason we want a facility that'southward beautiful and designed for high quality arts instruction is so the students know they are valued simply past the surroundings. And with that we build a community of loving and caring adults effectually the kids." She added, "The highlight is when I walk effectually the hall and literally every morning there'south the joy of kids making art. It's incredible."

Ed Spitzberg, the middle'south executive managing director, agreed. "This is our 10th ceremony, then we're celebrating our origins, nosotros're jubilant our growth, but we withal want to keep the essence of who we were ten years agone. Then we have to effort actress hard to make certain that every student even so feels known and loved, nurtured, and mentored."

The powerful advantage of children having prophylactic, quality after-schoolhouse programs cannot be exaggerated. After-school programs, such as Sitar, help in children's intellectual evolution -- grades, work habits, socialization -- not to mention that such programs keep kids safe. Statistics prove that giving children culling, artistic activities has a measurable impact. For example, one yr subsequently Baltimore police force started an subsequently-school plan in a violent area, illegal acts dropped 44 percent.

"Kids in this neighborhood take a lot of choices about how they're going to spend their time later school and a lot of them are non positive," said Rebecca Ende, the center'south marketing and communications director. "Here parents know it'southward a safe identify to drop their kids off. They know their children are accounted for." (Students bank check in with a magnetic swipe ID so the school knows who's in course.)

Sitar augments its paid staff with a grouping of volunteers from the Washington, DC metro area, including staff from the area's premier arts organizations such as the Washington Ballet, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage.

Adam Robinson, a volunteer from the Corcoran, recently took his Sitar Heart visual arts students to meet the Corcoran exhibit of Eadweard Muybridge's famous motility pictures. Robinson used the visit to requite his students historical context, a fleck of philosophy, and technical knowledge, along with the inspiration of great art. "[I told them], 'This is why it relates to you, and this is why you're going to call up it's cool -- and this is why it's important for united states of america older people, curators, etc.'"

Robinson is also working with his students on a culminating student projection that will be on display at the Corcoran along with the exhibit. "The students encounter there'south and then much more to life than just what they might see in their neighborhoods or their communities, which for some of these kids are just broken windows. Simply they see that whole thing, the hard work equaling achievement, that can happen at Sitar.…That'south something I really dear. I judge that's the fundamental difference of teaching at a place similar Sitar."