Maryann F. Kohl, an author of over 20 books about art activities for children, wrote: “Art is a place for children to learn to trust their ideas, themselves, and to explore what is possible."
Art shapes a child's development by boosting cognitive skills, enhancing motor abilities, and providing a safe outlet for emotional expression. It encourages critical thinking, self-esteem, and communication, laying a strong foundation for both academic and personal success. Planning and creating art exercises, decision-making, spatial awareness, and problem-solving. These skills translate directly to improved performance in subjects like math and science. Also, it can develop focus that keeps kids out of trouble at an age when they are vulnerable to bad influences.
We talked to Roberto “Berto” Reyes, Program Director at Warehouse 505. He tells us, “We’re a nonprofit in downtown Albuquerque. We started about 17 years ago, and we basically do free after-school programming for youth in the arts from 13 to 20 years of age.”
Berto says that the program can help with socialization skills in kids. “They’re using this as a therapeutic tool to just feel good about themselves and be around a community. We have youth here who were home-schooled and need to be socialized, so they come to us, and there’s less social anxiety. They're just coming in to be a part of a bigger community and having peers who are within the same art disciplines. They also have mentors who are specific to their artistic interests, teaching them the next step to progress. It just depends on what the youth want to take from it and how much involvement they're willing to invest.”
“We use the personal rolodexes amongst staff to find mentors. We look for people who have the same ethos as us. We're here to create a third space for them to learn the skills and the arts within our community.”
We caught up with Minh Quan (who shot our July cover of the Tramway). He told us about his experience as a photography teacher at Warehouse 505. “I was approached to become a teacher in 2014. I was nervous the first time teaching class, seeing kids with their eyes all staring at you, but after a couple of days, I had my agenda and everything ready to go. I really enjoyed it, and I ended up doing it all the way up until 2022. It was great because I would have kids from all different walks of life. I think the youngest student I took on was 12 years old, and then I'd have 18 to19-year-olds. I had mentors myself, and the biggest thing I learned from my mentors was to pay it forward. For me, it helped me to grow as a person because you learn some soft skills and communication skills from speaking to these kids. They're very analytical, so you just tell them, ‘Hey, this is what you need to do to capture the type of photo you want.’ Some of them are visual learners where you take multiple pictures at different settings, and then they can visually see what's going on, and some of them you just give them the camera, they don't need any instruction after what you've taught them in the in the beginning of the class, and they just create.”
Berto says the dedicated staff is a big part of Warehouse 505’s success at inspiring kids to be creative. Many are alumni of the program. He tells us, “I was a student myself in the program, and now I'm the program director. Three out of four of our staff are returning students who are now part of our admin staff, so that just shows the dedication from our staff and from our previous youth into our program.”
Warehouse 505 has regular events of their artists’ work: music, artwork, dance, screen print, sewing, and DJs. They are located at 202 Central Avenue SE. Their phone number is 505.350.5860. Events are on their website: warehouse505.org.
They’re using this as a therapeutic tool to just feel good about themselves and be around a community.
We started about 17 years ago, and we basically do free after-school programming for youth in the arts from 13 to 20 years of age.