Seattle Historical Arts for Kids

As of Wednesday at 8pm, counting the $1900 that's been donated outside the GiveBIG platform, our donors have surpassed our original $2000 goal and our first $3000 stretch goal, making am event-donation total of over $5000! Thank you so very much. 

It's not too late to join in. Donations are still welcome and make our season and our future more secure. We look forward to how well we can serve our students and our community when we have all the resources we need, thanks to you.

Special thanks to one of our original challenge donors for matching an extra $1000 of gifts! The challenge gifts bring our event total over $8000.

GiveBIG ends tonight! 

Thank you!

Two generous matching-challenge donors have already DOUBLED the first $2000 in donations made during GiveBIG on this platform right here or the usual year-round ways. Thank you!

Mission

Introducing young people to 12th-18th century music, dance, and theater since 2005, SHAK presents a wide variety of workshops and student performances throughout each year. Children and teens discover themselves as ambassadors for hands-on artistic skill, gaining community and an insider's enriched understanding of past eras. Participants inspire a multigenerational audience with the arts of the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and American Revolutionary eras. 

Description

In today's connected yet abstracted world, young people need the absorption of hands-on, in-depth experiences more than ever. Our devotion to the arts of Europe in the time of kings and queens is driven by simple delight in the beauty of the pre-industrial crafts and skills they offer. We're also inspired by the creative potential in revisiting these eras with the perspective and moral understanding of our modern multicultural world. We believe that going deep in any art form can help to develop our empathy and awareness, and that touching history helps kids and teens imagine and create a more meaningful future.

Seattle Historical Arts for Kids continues to navigate a changing landscape with your help. Your support in 2020 and 2021 powered our pivot to the world of online learning, with dozens of projects in the past two years. In 2023, while we haven't said goodbye to online programming, we are thrilled to be rebuilding our in-person programs. It's an exciting time as we welcome a cohort of newcomers, from age 5 through high school, for exploratory arts workshops and in-depth music programs.

Like other arts groups in America, we also continue to re-assess our role in cultural transmission as we take stock of the historical underpinnings of the racial and economic injustices that persist in the twenty-first century. At SHAK we are still beginning to grasp that our signature way of working with history has enormous potential in this area. In an easy first step for our own learning community, we've focused in the last few years on increasing the racial diversity of our guest artists.

SHAK serves a multi-level community, working with experienced musicians and actors through high school grades, getting to know younger children in exploratory workshops and performing projects, and welcoming audiences of all ages at our performances — from babies to retirees. We cultivate deep collaborations between skilled professionals and young people of any background. 

Thanks to you, all of our tuition-based programs operate on an income-based, no-application sliding fee model, with no one turned away for lack of funds. 

SHAK is fiscally sponsored by Shunpike, the 501c3 non-profit organization that empowers artists through equitable access to vital expertise, opportunities and business services. 

Recognition

With BIG thanks to this year's matching donors! Their generosity means every gift will have a BIG effect:

• Anonymous (Seattle): $1000 of matching funds
• Anonymous (CA): $1000 of matching funds