Asheville’s Urban Arts Institute looking to raise $$$ to match $10,000 donation for new space

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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The Urban Arts Institute of Asheville is an awesome community resource. The group is asking for the community’s help after it lost its rehearsal space. The UAI is trying to raise $10,000 through an indiegogo campaign here. More:

Asheville community leader Michael Hayes is the founder and creative director of the Urban Arts Institute, a free youth program offering dance, drama, video and music classes and mentoring to at-risk youth in the under-served African-American communities of Asheville.
Meeting for three hours a day, five nights a week, and requiring participants to maintain good grades, the UAI gives young people an opportunity to collaborate, mentor one another, and be part of meaningful performance experiences that weave this community together through art, creativity and the joy of self expression.
The UAI is a program of the arts-based, social service non-profit Arts 2 People (www.arts2people.org), which functions as a catalyst and incubator for multiple creative community programs in the city of Asheville, North Carolina.
Unfortunately, the UAI has been displaced from their former classroom and rehearsal space and currently has no place to meet for regular classes, mentoring, or rehearsal. Students from the UAI come from some of the most under-served communities in Asheville and the after school and Summer Enrichment classes at the UAI provide them with the focus they need to achieve their dreams.
The purpose of this campaign is to raise the funds to match a generous donation of $10,000 from within the Asheville community to help us establish a new home for the kids of the UAI.