Dandelion Arts Collective is an arts-in-public-health nonprofit that partners with social service and public health organizations, schools, and community centers in Colorado to promote health equity and public health through performing arts education and practices. We aim to reduce health injustices and increase protective factors against them, particularly for communities targeted by structural inequities. We believe in the power of arts in public health to improve social connections, wellness, and advance health data and public health awareness.
We are a mobile program serving Colorado families, children, young people, and adults across Northern Colorado and the North Denver Metro area.
Our vision is a world where everyone has access to the healing power of the arts. We believe that the arts have the power to inspire positive change and to bring people together across differences. Through our partnerships we are collectively envisioning a future where the arts are at the center of a more just and equitable society.
Our programming focuses on areas such as:
- Mental health
- Child development
- Environmental stewardship
- Social justice for intersections of systemically undervalued populations (LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities, etc.)
- Comprehensive, shame-free sexuality education
- Collaborative process-based performance
- Community resources, structural family support, and MORE!
Examples of Ongoing Projects Include:
- Off Script: A multi-week collaborative performing arts and theatre project with Imagine of Lafayette's Adult and School Age Service Disability programs to create and perform originally devised theater works while supporting life skill development and amplifying disabled voices of our community.
- Spark! Discovery Preschool Performing Arts Programs: A year round public preschool program in Weld County offering multi-week drama/theater, dance/fitness, and intergenerational family arts programs to over 250 children to support early childhood development, social emotional learning, self-efficacy, and community level health.
- Longmont Water Fair: An annual arts and science festival bringing together scientists, government agencies, artists, cultural ambassadors and youth to increase education on our local watershed through hands-on science activities, art projects, live performances, and engagement with local water leaders.
Our Reach:
- Dandelion Arts Collective reaches over 185 participants per week. In 2024 we served 3000 participants, with over 8500 participant engagements
- Over 75% of our programs and events are free to participants. Both sliding scale and scholarship funding are offered for tuition-based programs
- Dandelion Arts Collective offers an average of 13 programs each week, with 55% of our program participants in recurring/multi-week offerings.
- Over 45% of our programming serves people living with (dis)ability/ physical/neurological diversity
- Over 48% of our programming serves communities receiving social service supports
- Over 43% of our programming serves children and multilingual communities
- We reach infants to elders across Boulder, Broomfield, Weld, Larimer, Adams, and Jefferson County
Our Goals: We create meaningful artistic experiences for our participants to increase
- Public health education, resources, and services
- Intrinsic motivation to engage in activities that enhance well-being
- Artistic literacy and skills as a positive contributor to multiple modalities of intelligence and education
- Participants feeling of interconnectedness and belonging with others and the world in which they exist
- Frequency and number of community members modeling and creating health-promoting activities and equitable health policies
- Confidence and capacity of community members to be positive change-makers for health equity and social justice
- Increasing community-centered collaboration across arts and other disciplines to address the root social and environmental changes needed to support healthy communities
Dandelion Arts Collective is an arts-in-health nonprofit dedicated to increasing health equity and public health promotion through performing arts education and practices.
We believe that the performing arts can be used to advance health equity and social justice. Founded in 2023, we are a woman-owned, non-profit collective that uses theatre, movement, music, and many other performing arts modalities to support health and well-being. We are impassioned to foster the structural and sociocultural changes to increase health, create platforms for self-expression, and provide safe spaces for communities to explore the human experience. Join us in our vision to create a better tomorrow, today.
At Dandelion Arts collective, we acknowledge the existence of systemic racism, ableism, sexism, and other forms of oppression that create inequities across health care, education, wealth, and more. These intersections of injustice negatively affect all people; and yet, they most often harm people of the global majority, children, women, LGBTQIA+, and disabled folks.
Liberation from these systems takes conscious effort and understanding of their interconnections.
We believe in the strengths of our community and humbly hope to contribute in the spirit of co-learning and cultural humility. We consciously build programming and work in equal partnership with the full range of the humans we aim to serve. We welcome and ask those from experiences different than our own to partner with us and become part of our program.
Organization name
Dandelion Arts Collective
2023
Tax id (EIN)
93-2134068
Category
Arts, Culture & Humanities, Public & Societal Benefit, Education, Community Improvement & Capacity Building, Civil Rights, Social Action & Advocacy, Youth Development
Organization Size
Small Organization
Address
1330 9TH AVEBoulder County, CO, US
Broomfield, CO, US
Larimer County, CO, US
Weld County, CO, US
Adams County, CO, US
Phone
970-391-1482
other
303-885-6771