Loop It Up Savannah Inc.

History/ About:

Loop It Up Savannah is a community art program which was founded in 2008. It began as a children’s knitting and crochet class at the West Broad Street YMCA, and quickly grew to include a broad spectrum of art forms in weekly classes for children and adults throughout Savannah’s urban neighborhoods. Through programs and partnerships with schools, community centers, museums and local businesses, Loop It Up Savannah brings art and creativity to 5000 young people each year. Our motto is simple: Make Things & Be Nice. Our commitment to Savannah’s youth is strong; we believe in meeting them where they are and supporting them to be all they can be-- in their artwork as well as other aspect of life.

In April, 2015 Loop It Up Savannah became an independent non-profit organization giving us a greater ability to foster creative partnerships throughout Savannah.

Mission Statement: Loop It Up Savannah exists to provide creative art experiences and connect resources to children and families throughout urban Savannah. Through the arts, we foster strong relationships, allowing us to work together to foster a community where every day needs are met and with creativity, bright futures are built.

After-School Creative Arts

Each year Loop It Up Savannah partners with Schools and Community Centers across the city to provide creative arts experiences to students during the afterschool window. Our after school programs are centered around a specific medium, theme or project. Students create artwork and participate in group projects that give them opportunities to express themselves in a safe space, develop a strong sense of self-respect as well as respect for their peers, while making beautiful artwork. We believe that the afterschool window is one of the most important times of day, our programs give students opportunity to apply what they know about the world around them in a relaxed and positive environment. Our class ratios are 10:1 or smaller, which insures that students receive 1:1 attention and feedback on their work as well as support when conflicts or challenges arise between peers.

Early Learning Center Creative Arts

We offer weekly classes in Early Learning classrooms throughout the city of Savannah. Some of these programs take place in community centers, others in pre-K classes within the public school system. Our goal in this program is to give young students exposure to a variety of art mediums, while supporting age-appropriate  fine motor, cognitive and social development. Participants in these programs work on both long and short-term projects as well as both independent and group pieces. Each child has an art portfolio, which is compiled throughout the workshop. We display the students work throughout the workshop and also host an art exhibit at the end, as we believe that art can play a very strong and positive role in a young child’s  developing sense of themself and understanding of themselves in the context of their community.

School Residency Programs

Our School Residency programs typically last 4-8 weeks, and provide a classroom with a specific art project which is connected to at least one of the academic subjects that they are currently studying. We work closely with classroom teachers to develop relevant and educationally beneficial projects for their classroom. Our goal is to use the arts to reinforce what the students are learning in other classes throughout the day. These projects give students opportunity to apply their knowledge and realize the real relevance of what they are learning in school. These residency programs always culminate with a public display, event or exhibit which is open to the school community and beyond, we often are able to coordinate with local festivals and community events for greater exposure. Art works created in our school residency programs are frequently installed in prominent locations inside the school.

Creative Arts In the Street

We bring art to the streets through community festivals and events as often as we can ---- through exhibits, children’s art workshops we are working to make art as universal and dependable an element in the urban life of savannah’s Children as possible. So frequently, we are made aware of the overwhelming violence, crime and poverty which occurs in our city. Our goal through all of our programs, and specifically Creative Arts In the Street, is to provide consistent, sustainable and believable elements in our student’s lives. There is a belief among the children in many Savannah neighborhoods that “sometimes you just get shot.” Our goal is to make it possible to believe that other things happen too--- and that many of them are different and better. When opportunities for art and positive self expression become as prominent and dependable as the gunshot outside of young people’s  windows, their perspective on the world shifts and improves.

Beloved Community Project

The Beloved Community Project is the social services branch of Loop It Up Savannah. Frequently, through our arts programming we get to know families very well and we become aware of basic needs that are not being met within the lives of our students. We consider it our responsibility to connect our families to as many resources as possible. The Beloved Community Project is our way of making the most of the relationships that we have build with both our families and our community partners to make sure that our students and their  families have enough food to eat, clothing to wear, power and water in there homes as well as access to health care, transportation and safe housing.

Partners

Our work is dependent on a tight knit web of community partners.

Program & Community Resource Partners:

The Savannah Chatham County Public School System

The YMCA of Coastal Georgia

21st Century Savannah

The Frank Callen Boys and Girls CLub

The West Broad Street YMCA

Performance Initiatives

Saint Mary’s Community Center

The Wesley Community Centers

The Lady Bamford Center

Statlandia Creative Supply

Artrise Savannah

Emergent Savannah

Horizons Savannah

WellFed

Savannah Urban Garden Alliance

Sulfur Studios

Jelinek Creative Spaces

The Savannah Tree Foundation

The A-Town Get Down

Dawn’s Daughter

SEAL Savannah

Hands On Savannah

The Telfair Museum of Art

Shelter From the Rain

Solidarity In Savannah

The Savannah Bicycle Campaign

Step Up Savannah

LifeBridge Church

Saint Leo University