User:Wcorona7/sandbox/SAY Sí

Name Sake SAY Sí gets its quirky name from a colloquial pun of sorts, SAY being an acronym for San Antonio Youth, the target audience for their program. "Sí", being Spanish for yes, serves as an ode to the largely LatinX community in San Antonio. Together the two create a small sentence with a long lasting impact. The establishments name is a bit of a pun that asks the at risk youth of the city to say no to drugs and yes to art. This describes the main goal of the San Antonio institution of over 20 years in it's most plain and simple possible way; Stay off the streets and explore your creative side.

A Short History Just 6 years after they fist opened in 1994 SAY Sí's Visual Arts Program had gained such popularity that they added a media arts program and moved from their 1800 square foot one room establishment to the long established Blue Star Arts Complex. Seven short years later, in 2007, they grew even larger with the addition of a year round Saturday program in which high school students would teach middle school students some of the skills they themselves gained from the program and receiving several national program awards (including the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, and National Arts & Humanities Youth Program Awards) they moved to the 26,000 square foot converted warehouse originally built as a JAX brewery distribution site adjacent in the San Antonio's Southtown. In 2007, a theater arts program was added to the courses offered by the San Antonio institution, but they weren't done offering more to the public yet. In 2015, just after the programs 20th anniversary they opened their doors to students interested in video game development program in the HIVE (Home for Innovation and Video Ecology) Studio, one of the few programs of this nature in the nation, much less inner city San Antonio.

Mission SAY Sí ignites the creative power of young people as forces of positive change. They value artists, empower marginalized communities* and advance culture. Using the following Core Values:


 * Creativity
 * Leadership
 * Equity
 * Community

* SAY Sí defines marginalized communities as people of color, women, LGBT+, and the economically disadvantaged.

Future Thanks to ever growing support from the community and a continuously growing student body SAY Sí plans on soon moving to a larger facility in the city's west side as to better serve the initial goal of the program, to serve the cities youth