VanGo, a colorfully decorated Honda Element, is a mobile art studio with professionally trained arts instructors in the driver’s seat, arriving fully loaded with high quality art supplies and a visual arts curriculum.

VanGo is Arts Central's arts education outreach program.  It hit the pavement in Summer 2006 and continues to travel throughout Central Oregon to non-profit facilities where children gather after school and during the summer. VanGo is a visible, dynamic way to bring the arts to children and teens who do not normally have access to arts instruction, in their schools or elsewhere.

VanGo now serves as an “arts ambassador” to rural communities.

Central Oregon needs VanGo!

As the regional arts council, Arts Central serves Deschutes, Crook, and Jefferson counties, an area covering 7,800 square miles.  One of Arts Central’s objectives is to make the arts available to children, regardless of ability to pay.  VanGo also travels to Klamath and Lake counties, increasing our area to 22,000 square miles! 

Because families in rural towns often do not have the time or money to drive their children to a location, such as Bend, with existing arts facilities, Arts Central created a way to bring arts instruction directly to them. The VanGo project is designed to travel to small towns and youth facilities that do not have existing arts programs.

Some examples of where VanGo has brought art classes to:

• Madras — Jefferson County School District’s K-5 after-school program
• Prineville — Boys & Girls Club
• La Pine — La Pine Middle School
• Sisters — SOAR recreation center
• Bend — "The Loft” teen homeless center, J Bar J Youth Services
• Paulina School
• Redmond -- Lynch after-school program
• Head Start in Redmond and Bend 

VanGo's Impact

Children and teens are now receiving professional visual arts education, many for the first time. This is very significant for these students who live in rural, often isolated communities.

Much research proves that children receiving sustained arts education develop crucial thinking skills for achieving at higher levels. Learning art engages and strengthens fundamental cognitive skills such as spatial reasoning, problem-solving, and creative thinking. It has also been shown to nurture motivation, active engagement, disciplined attention, and persistence.
 
Other studies show that art has a unique way of reaching students who are disadvantaged economically and socially, thus keeping dropout rates down and students interested in experimenting and learning.

We are helping school districts meet state art requirements that they previously could not meet. VanGo follows the Oregon State Curriculum Content Standards for the Arts.

We bring expert arts instruction to children and youth who cannot pay for it or who do not have access to it. We are a true partner in that we do not compete with any other non-profit, but offer only what is not already available for the arts education of our children and youth.