The Focus of After School Arts
Our program strives to introduce kids in the Yakima Valley to culturally diverse music, dance, drumming, and arts.
We regularly partner with local schools and offer parents and caregivers the opportunity to participate alongside their kids by attending classes, performances, and community workshops.
Art brings us together, reminding us that our world is diverse beyond our own multicultural community and affirming that there is more that unites us than what divides us.
After School Arts at Englewood is a safe place for children, teens and adults to explore and create. We believe that giving students equitable access to arts and cultural exploration is a generational investment in our community.
Our Vision and Mission
Our Community Partners
Grant Funders:
Community Event Partners:
Educational Partners:
Our Advisory Panel
Carolyn Hamilton (Director)- Working with children, teens and adults to provide high quality arts programs is her passion. Raised in Wapato, Carolyn has always had a love of music and movement.
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She moved to NYC as a young adult where acting and dancing became her focus. She lived in multiple cities but eventually settled down in Cairo, Egypt where she spent 13 year working as a successful dancer and actress. While in Egypt Carolyn founded a yearly arts festival focused on dance, live music and culture. She also produced six albums of Arabic music and traveled around the world teaching dance. Carolyn returned to the United States and began to work with children the public schools on the Yakama reservation before directing the youth programs at Englewood Christian Church including After School Arts. Carolyn believes that every day is a new chance to make a connection and art is the great connector!
Jay Carskadden-I am an artisit and run an independent, freelance design and marketing studio located in the Pacific Northwest. I like working with people who care about what they do and what they put out into the world.
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Some things I like: researching, teaching, hiking, typography, questioning the status quo, open space, running water, Japan, the Enneagram, mindful people, and dogs.
Rosie Saldana is inspired by many sources: her interest in art history; her exploration of her culture, self and heritage; and, significantly, her mother.
She is an artist who focuses primarily on painting in a variety of mediums.
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Rosie has a BA from Heritage University has her MA in Museum Studies at Johns Hopkins University. As director of Tieton Arts and Humanities, Rosie has been instrumental in enriching the Yakima Valley through dynamic community arts programming. Rosie’s artwork blends both personal and cultural aspects of her Latino heritage and has been exhibited regionally.
Amirra Malak is mixed Egyptian-American artist and educator living in Oregon while also inhabiting spaces between cultures, countries, geographies, and identities.
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She feels most at home in liminal spaces, especially in the natural world and is interested in using light, pattern, movement, time, sound, and visual sensation to create meditative healing experiences. Work includes drawing, painting, textiles, meditative video, interactive and immersive video installations, and curated online spaces. She is currently exploring bridging past and future through the combination of ancient craft and modern technologies in video and textile installations inspired by Egyptian Khayamiya tent applique.
Luciana Proaño is a Portland based Peruvian dancer and artist dedicated to multidisciplinary and cross-cultural work. Her unique aesthetic style shows that her Peruvian heritage and world travels are blended deeply in her subconscious.
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Luciana says of her teaching philosophy, “I teach for people to discover something about themselves while enjoying collaboration and community. Mythology fosters open minds in a diverse world where we are a microcosm of that diversity. In the use of archetypes, diversity has convergence.” Luciana is part of Young Audience Arts for Learning, a program which brings arts into the schools in Oregon and South West Washington. Kids love her dynamic teaching style and boundless energy.
Jill Delaney-Hi, I’m Jill. I live and work in White Swan, Washington; a small town within the bounds of the Yakama Nation. It’s either the first or last town you come to on the reservation, depending on which way your going … or your perspective.
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I live on deeded land with my family; husband David, kids Pepper and Owen, and our extended animal family that includes cats, dogs, chickens, horses and cows. We farm, sort of … mostly I just try to grow things: vegetables, fruit, kids, confidence, home and connections. Before all this, I was a Pastor and technically still am … although I no longer serve a traditional congregation. I am so fortunate to be able to do stuff I really love: garden, volunteer with our school district, do theology and think about ways to create alternative creation centered housing, and spend time with my kiddos, husband, and friends.
