A local faith-based nonprofit is bringing free arts education to children in Fort Worth in a bid to help them overcome adverse life experiences.
Above the Clouds Texas offers ballet, theater, hip-hop, jazz, and voice lessons to kids ages 5-17. The organization offers classes through the William M. McDonald YMCA, the Las Vegas Trail Revitalization Project, and the Leadership Academy of Forest Oak Middle School.
Though the classes are free to those who may not otherwise be able to afford them, the program is not without cost. The nonprofit relies on financial donations and grants to pay the instructors. Shoe and costume donations are sourced from local dance studios.
The Above the Clouds (ATC) nonprofit was founded by artist and dancer Linda Wade more than two decades ago in Wisconsin as an offshoot of Disciples Unlimited (DU), a program that brings worship and dance to women in prison.
“After talking with the women in prison, Linda soon realized that most of their trouble started when they were children,” the ATC website explains.
Wade formed ATC to give kids with adverse life experiences the opportunity to express themselves through art, hoping to prevent them from becoming incarcerated later in life.
“I wanted to do something so that our children … would have a safe place where they could express themselves, learn a variety of art mediums as well as feel the love of Christ,” Wade said, per the website.
Tina Washington, the director of the Texas chapter of ATC, first met Wade while volunteering with DU following her own incarceration in Marlin, Texas. When Wade asked her to bring the ATC program to Texas, Washington knew she had to help.
“For all my life, I wrote, I sang, I drew, I danced, and I sewed, and to have an organization that can help any kind of family, I wanted to be a part of that,” Washington said, according to Fort Worth Report.
She explained that about half of the children in the program have been impacted by a family member’s incarceration. The program gives them a safe place to explore the arts while expressing themselves.
“This may be their only outlet. They’re able to express how they feel through what they’re doing,” Washington said, per FWR.
“We realize that art opens up the children’s personalities. It gives them a chance to see who they are,” Washington told NBC 5 DFW earlier this year.
Participants “get to learn what they want to learn and not worry about the cost,” she said. “We don’t want them to think it’s only for those with a lot of money and for one race.”
The Texas chapter of ATC has served more than 250 kids since it arrived in Fort Worth two years ago. Washington hopes to expand the program into Dallas in the near future.
“Being introduced to this program as an artist who was formerly incarcerated, a mom who was formerly incarcerated, and a child who has experienced trauma, and seeing it kind of circling together, just gives me hope that God will continue to do what he’s already done in the future,” Washington told FWR.
