Summertime is just around the corner.
School is ending, giving kids plenty of free time. What is there for them to do that doesn’t require spending money?
Nothing—at least that’s the realization Gale McNeeley had in 2017.
That’s when he started Youth ARTS Alive, a five-week schedule of free summer art classes for children that culminates with a showcase performance in July. Painting, drawing, and sculpting are just some of the skills children can build.
On June 16, Youth ARTS Alive will return for its ninth summer. Classes will be held from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, starting on the 16th and concluding with the Visual and Performing Arts Fiesta on July 18 at the Veterans’ Memorial Center in Santa Maria.
“We tried to take our classes to where the kids live, so transportation isn’t a challenge,” McNeeley said.
This summer, Youth ARTS Alive will host classes at three locations: the Minami Community Center at 600 W. Enos Drive, the Newlove Community Building at 1619 S. Thornburg St., and the Grogan Community Center at 1155 W. Rancho Verde.
Each location offers a different set of classes— McNeeley said there’s a pottery class offered only at the Grogan Center, a ballet folklórico class just at the Newlove building, and a screen-printing class exclusively at the Minami Center.
“Every one of our sites has visual arts, theater, some form of dance, and some form of music,” McNeeley said. “We have great teachers. They’re all professionals.”
Unlike at a typical summer camp, children sign up for each Youth ARTS Alive class they want to take, not the program as a whole. Kids don’t have to be in class every Monday to Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. to participate—they can sign up for just one class, every class, or any number of classes in between.
“Some of the older kids may just want to take pottery twice a week, or they’re interested just in guitar,” McNeeley said. “We have enough of a spread on the buffet of art classes that anyone should find something they enjoy.”
Classes occur twice a week, either every Monday and Wednesday or every Tuesday and Thursday, and McNeeley said they’re 50 minutes long and usually consist of about 12 to 15 students but can include as many as 25.
After each class, Youth ARTS Alive provides a 10-minute break for students to refresh. Classes are open to students ages 8 to 18.
All students need to sign up is a $20 refundable deposit for each session to reserve their spot and a parent’s signature on a release form allowing them to participate. Kids and their parents can sign up at youthartsalive.org or in person at any one of the three summer program locations.
“If you [forget to] register online or you’re not computer savvy, you can come to class any morning that first week at any one of our sites and sign up,” McNeeley said. “At 9:30 on Monday, June 16, you can register right there.”
Youth ARTS Alive, which started in 2017 at the Abel Maldonado Community Youth Center offering four weeks of classes for 17 students, grew to serve 250 kids last year.
Thanks to assistance from the Santa Barbara Bowl, Youth ARTS Alive has enough musical instruments to lend students guitars and ukuleles to use for their summer classes.
“Every child is guaranteed an instrument if they don’t have one,” McNeeley said. “For the weeks of the program, they can take it home and practice so they’re ready to perform on July 18.”
That final performance, McNeeley said, aka the Visual and Performing Arts Fiesta, begins at 6 p.m. and will conclude with a community potluck. He said usually about 250 people attend.
“It’s open to the public,” he said about the culminating festivities. “We love when people from the community come.”
The children will display their visual art and sing, dance, and act onstage, McNeeley said. The children in the screen-printing class will show off shirts with their own printed designs, and the show will conclude with call-and-response drumming led by Sean Sullivan, who founded Drum Perks Inc., he said.
“Whether you’re doing theater, playing guitar, or dancing together, in the arts, you find your family,” McNeeley said. “Our goal is to let every child in Santa Maria who wants to try out music or dance or theater or visual arts do that in a safe place where they can grow year by year. Come have fun and learn something new.”
Tell Staff Writer Reece Coren how you keep art alive at rcoren@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 5-15, 2025.