Bellingham Arts Academy for Yo (BAAY)

Baay theatre: we provide children with a safe and nurturing environment to study theatre, dance, choir, music, and visual Arts. In addition to building artistic skills, Baay is committed to creating community and fostering confidence, character, and creativity in young people. This year, we received 978 enrollments in our 42 different courses at our downtown theatre location. 21 of those programs culminated in performances, including original productions as well as full musicals: aristocats, starmites, the jungle book, the 25th annual putnam county spelling bee, and cabaret. We held an outdoor musical theatre summer program called camp larrabaay. State street theatre company (sstc) is our musical theatre program for students ages 15-18, and we held the second annual sstc production at mount baker theatre in august. Our staff also offered ongoing private voice lessons to 24 different students. Baay supported the participation of 133 students through tuiton waivers.

Baay eduarts: the eduarts after-school enrichment program carries baays philosophy and learning environment into local schools. Through this program, we offer performing and visual Arts classes after regular school hours, on school campuses, to supplement students educations and provide child care. After a year of rebuilding the program following the covid-19 pandemic, Baay eduarts experienced much growth during the 2022-2023 school year. Baay hired a new program coordinator whose sole focus is coordinating these classes and building partnerships with local schools. We offered 5 classes in the fall session, 12 classes in the winter, and 16 in the spring. A total of 317 students participated in these eduarts programs and classes included theatre, improv, guitar, ukulele, and visual Arts. Baay was able to leverage grant support received to increase access and provided 7 tuition-free classes in title-i schools.