SMARTS rebirth stems from community support

By RACHEL GOBEP

Story330

YOUNGSTOWN

For Kelli Catullo, SMARTS is not just a resource for children and the community, it is a home in Youngstown for her children to learn and be around others like themselves.

Catullo of Boardman has two children participating in Students Motivated by the Arts, or SMARTS. It is a community-based regional arts school in Youngstown for PreK-12 students that focuses on underserved populations.

WATCH VIDEO | FAMILY DINNER MARKS SMARTS' RETURN

Her 5-year-old takes a nature ceramics class, where the students make different objects and figurines out of ceramics. Her 12-year-old is in a cartoon animation and piano class.

“I want my children to be involved in the arts because it’s important for their minds and their education to be well-rounded. I love the arts and music, so why wouldn’t they?” Catullo said.

SMARTS provides access and equity in arts education throughout the region with free classes in visual art, music, dance, theater and creative writing. More than 300 members and supporters celebrated the organization at an April 3 dinner at Stambaugh Auditorium – a rebirth from an uncertain future just five years ago.

The organization was founded by Becky Keck in 1997 at Youngstown State University and operated at the university until December 2013, when it was discontinued due to budget cuts. SMARTS started its return to the community in January 2014.

Investment from 18 foundations, 31 businesses and fewer than 100 individual donors allowed SMARTS to exceed its initial $750,000 “All in One” campaign goal and raise $1.9 million to date.

SMARTS reaches more than 2,000 students weekly at its downtown location in the Ohio One Building and at partner sites in the community. The organization serves students from 24 communities in the region. As of February, there were 600 students who have applied for SMARTS after-school classes. Of them, 66 percent live at or below the poverty level.

April’s SMARTS family dinner was a way to celebrate the success of the organization as a family with community supporters, friends, and most importantly, SMARTS students and families.

“I think the important part of us getting together is that the community support that we have seen in the last 63 months has brought us here,” Keck said.

Landis Erwin, a member of the planning committee for the dinner, said donations and support are unique for an organization such as SMARTS.

“You want to give back to what means a lot to you, and SMARTS is such an amazing organization that helps students all over the area, not just in Youngstown, but in surrounding communities,” she said.

The SMARTS family dinner – a first in its 22-year-history – showcased students’ work in visual arts, creative writing displays and video, and demonstrations in music, dance and theater.

Kirsti Manna, an award-winning singer-songwriter from Youngstown who now lives in Nashville, Tenn., was keynote speaker at the dinner. She praised the importance SMARTS has in the community.

“There’s so many people that don’t have the capacity in one way or another to go and seek out, pay for or find instructors for private instruction,” she said. “An organization like this has all kinds of ways they can reach out, get sponsors and let people know what they offer.”

Manna, along with her husband, Bill Warner, are both graduates of the YSU Dana School of Music. They performed Manna’s six-week Billboard No. 1 hit, “Austin,” which introduced Blake Shelton to country radio.

Throughout her speech, Manna reinforced the idea that creative people are weird, admitting that she, herself, is weird.

Eric Alleman was introduced as SMARTS new Artist in Residence at the dinner. The SMARTS AIR enables a guest artist to create work in the SMARTS facility and interact with students and their families and to connect to the community.

Alleman unifies human interaction through the use of dramatic mixed media artwork to express feelings of isolation, tension and absurdity.

In 2017, SMARTS was awarded the Governor’s Award for Arts Education in Ohio by the Ohio Arts Council and the Ohio Citizens for the Arts Foundation for its leadership, significant contributions and creative efforts to advance arts education in Ohio’s schools and community organizations.

SMARTS is located in the Ohio One building at 25 E. Boardman St., Youngstown. For information, call 330-574-2787 or contact Keck at bkeck@SmartsArtsSchool.org.

Story330 is a trial journalism cooperative among Valley service agencies, YSU students and area media groups.