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What We Do

Initiatives & Campaigns

$0.00
$2,500,000.00
4%
We have raised $90,230.00 of our $2,500,000.00  goal.

 

Our Why

In January 2017, Brandon House moved into a renovated 1,748 square feet facility at 3802 West 12th Street along the 12th Street Corridor in the Midtown area of Little Rock where our youth afterschool and summer programs are held and administrative offices are located. Over the years, Brandon House has grown both in enrollment of our programs, sponsorships and funding with us serving over 537 youth in 2019.  During the pandemic, Brandon House was afforded opportunities to work with local musicians and creative professionals promoting us to realize the unmet arts-based needs of this group of creative professionals. 

Now, almost 10 years since our inception, Brandon House needs space as never before because youth program enrollment is up and arts-based services for creative professionals are in demand.  Though it has served us well, our current facility can no longer support the arts-based needs of our youth, young adults, artists, musicians and creative professionals.  Additionally, Brandon House realizes that technology has redefined performing arts, arts integration and arts education in the 21st century, with technology influencing the way youth learn, artists create and organizations operate.  

As we change to keep up with the arts-based needs of our community, our Board of Directors and the Brandon House team are considering a major expansion that would not only provide us with more space, but will offer opportunities to create a trained diverse workforce through arts-based programming.  With enthusiasm, vision and careful planning, the Board has determined that a major fund-raising campaign should be launched to fund and establish a creative career and workforce development center.


 

Current Climate

The mission of Brandon House Cultural & Performing Arts Center (referred to as Brandon House hereafter) is transforming lives through creative and performing arts! Brandon House is an urban community-based multi-discipline, multicultural center that supports the efforts of school districts, faith-based and community organizations, and other arts and cultural groups through arts-based programming. Students and families enrolled in Brandon House programs represent extreme multi-generational poverty, low educational attainment, and high unemployment rates.  Many of our programs are focused on empowering youth to discover their skills and talents to ultimately generate their own revenue.

With partnerships and funding supported by City of Little Rock, Arkansas Arts Council, Arkansas Department of Education 21st Century Community Learning Centers, Little Rock School District, UAPB Minority Initiative Subrecipient Grant Office (MISRGO), United Way, Arkansas Community Foundation, Dollar General, and other private funders, we have been able to offer out-of-school time and summer programming to Little Rock youth and residents (and 6 other Arkansas counties).  Since its inception, Brandon House has served over 6,756 youth and families, serving over 537 youth in FY 2019-2020.

There are three phases of our programming: Phase I: Creative Education Programs, Phase II: Creative Career and Technical Education & Workforce Development, and Phase III: Performing Arts Community Events/Live Entertainment. We have successfully rolled out the creative education programs for the past 4 years, and we are now looking to expand as we create a Creative Career and Workforce Development Center that will located outside of downtown Little Rock. We are seeking a new location to offer our current programs and expand to new programming to serve underrepresented youth, artists, musicians and creative professionals. 


 

Campaign Purpose

The purpose of the capital campaign is to raise $2.5 million dollars to purchase, repurpose, and renovate a facility into a state-of-the-art creative career and workforce development center that will support the creative talents of artists and musicians and strengthen the career and technical skills of underrepresented youth who are the next generation workforce.  The capital campaign will be realized over a three-year period.

 


MEETING THE COMMUNITY NEEDS

Brandon House realizes that technology has redefined performing arts, arts integration, and arts education in the 21st century, with technology influencing the way youth learn, artists create, and organizations operate. Youth, young adults, creative professionals, and community residents who are equipped with 21st century skills are better positioned to address problems in their communities and advance their careers.  Brandon House’s programs support the development of skills in creativity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, initiative, accountability, responsibility, flexibility, adaptability, and self-direction under 3 program pillars: Creative Education Programs, Creative Career & Workforce Development, and Live Entertainment & Performing Arts.

To learn more about our programs visit "What We Do"

Now, more than ever, our youth need opportunities that encourage, inspire and engage them through expressive arts activities. The renovated and expanded Brandon House facility will provide opportunities for youth who need access to programs to help them deal with the stresses and challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.


 

What's Missing? Programmatic Capacity 

Brandon House has grown steadily over the past five years thanks to the successful results of our program team, increased enrollment, sound board of directors and administrative leadership, and fiscal management; but we have reached capacity to meet the needs of the youth and creative professionals due to:

LACK OF CREATIVE SPACECurrently Brandon House is housed in a 2-classroom facility on the 12th Street Corridor in the Midtown community that encompasses only 1,748 square feet; and our existing facility can no longer support the arts-based needs of our youth, young adults, artists, creators, and musicians.

SCATTERED PROGRAMMINGUsing different sites scattered around the Little Rock area makes it difficult to systematically address the unmet arts-based needs of current and additional youth.

LACK OF STATE OF THE ART PRODUCTION STUDIOS & TECHNOLOGY LABS: There is a need for a space that is fully-equipped with technology labs that promote quality 21st century arts-based workforce training for underrepresented youth and young adults and offer business services, resources and support services for creative professionals.

LACK OF ART STUDIO AND ART GALLERY for youth and artists to display their artwork in their own communities.


Defining the future of Brandon House: Creating a Trained Diverse Workforce

The desired facility will include administrative space, production studios, media technology labs, art studio and art gallery, and theater and performance spaces.  The new creative career and workforce development center will: (1) enable Brandon House to address gaps in arts-based services, offer 21st century workforce training; and house small business incubation services and resources to small arts-based businesses; (2) increase its target audience by 75% and capacity by serving additional constituents annually of underserved and underrepresented youth, aspiring artists, creative professionals, and musicians. Expansion will allow for greater investment in a prepared workforce among the next generation of creative professionals, artists and musicians through added programs and opportunities as a result of accomplishing objectives in the following expansion phases:

 

Phase I: Roof repair on southeast corner of building and addition of staff restroom.

Phase II: Renovate and repurpose the space into music and audio production studios, private rehearsal suites, dance studio, arts education classrooms, administrative offices, media technology labs, an art studio and gallery, small business incubation and artists’ workspace, and spaces that can be rented out to the community for cultural events. 


Phase III: Expand and construct a theater and performing arts center. 

IMPACTING THE NEXT GERNERATION OF ARTISTS


Due to the significant impact that technology has on the arts, it is our hope that the future holds much more for Brandon House than simply securing a building, expanding creative arts programming, or creating statewide partnerships.  The future of Little Rock and the entire state requires the next generation to be well-equipped to succeed as entrepreneurs, community leaders, and productive citizens. We expect Brandon House's new Creative Career & Workforce Development Center to serve as a best practice creative arts education and creative career training model for other organizations that serve low-income urban underrepresented populations. This new facility will allow Brandon House to impact the next generation of creative professionals through 21st century arts-based workforce development. JOIN US to make quality artistic experiences, training, and support readily available by Raising the Bar for the Arts!

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