Mission

“From the example of old ropes, we learn to weave new ones.”
Anlo-Ewe Proverb

In the next two years, the Center will rebuild its Richmond, California, home. It will create a place of beauty, dignity, and light in a place long neglected in the world’s affairs. Here, hundreds of master artists, alongside thousands of members of the community and Center students, will perform and teach the weaving of traditions and the creation of new ways. Through it all, the Center will continue its tradition of going to whatever lengths it takes to support any youth willing to make a commitment to hard work and training.
From our first forty, we are building the Center for the next fifty years:

• We will reach 100,000 children in and around the inner city

• We will partner with at least 100,000 school children in our local and regional school district of West Contra Costa County

• We will reach 500,000 members of our local and regional audience

• We will engage a neighborhood of 20,000 in the Iron Triangle neighborhood of our home in Richmond, California

• We will involve thousands of local and regional artists, performers, and educators in our extensive professional programming

• We will train thousands of educators through professional development workshops supported by the United States Department of Education, bringing California Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) standards into local and regional classrooms

We will do this all from our restored historical building in the center of Richmond, California, our old home made new through a multi-million dollar renovation. We will do it through two new theaters with 5,000 additional square feet of instructional and training space.
For forty years, we have seen shy children learn to take risks, struggling teens get back on track, and new immigrant youth develop into leaders, revitalizing their communities. Through art, each has found a voice to shape their future and skills, to sustain them on the road ahead.
Perhaps someone you know will become one of them.