Storytelling, Wellness, Art and You

SWAY Program

Our SWAY program is a multi-art approach to engaging young people living in marginalized communities with artmaking and the creative process. 

This program is designed to launch discovery, connection, and creativity to give young people a platform to explore and discover the arts.

SWAY (Youth & Senior) uses four key connections to cultivate community, collaborations, in a creative manner:

  • Sharing Individual experiences with others. Turning these experiences into stories that explore and interpret these experiences into visual art and movement phrases (dance and movement).

  • The creative experiences help young people find common ground while acknowledging their joys and fears in a supportive, safe, and nurturing environment.

  • Taking these experiences and translating them into visual art and dance expression created by way of storytelling, sharing, and collaborating with others to tell the story.

  • "You" is significant. Our young participants guide the process for SWAY. They determine the program projects and help create every aspect of the program in order to have ownership over the process and the objectives of the classes.

Our objective is to cultivate trust and connection in the community by providing opportunities for meaningful collaboration through a multi-art experience for our participants.

Students have ownership of the program and help create the direction of their arts experience based on a variety of factors such as current events which directly affect the quality of life, mental and physical health.

Engagement in the arts has been shown to improve the mental and physical health of senior citizens. Research indicates that participating in creative activities like visual arts, music, and dance can lead to better cognitive functioning, reduced anxiety and depression, and increased social interaction, all of which contribute to overall better health and well-being in older adults.

This objective aligns with our vision that "ALL members of the community should have access to transformative arts experiences."

For more information about Youth or Senior SWAY, please contact Executive Director, Cherrelyn Napue, cnapue@artstogether.org 

  • Since 2020 The Youth SWAY initiative has been conducted in partnership with Raleigh Housing Authority, Communities in Schools-Wake.

    Our teaching artists spend time in each community once a week for afterschool enrichment for 16 weeks during the academic year. SWAY also supports the CIS-Wake summer camps. We strive to offer art activities in partnership with various community based organizations, expanding to serve young people from the surrounding neighborhoods as well.