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REACHING YOUTH THROUGH ART: ONE DONOR’S STORY
As a child, Katharine Gin studied the visual arts in school and piano at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. “I was lucky to have wonderful experiences in the arts as a child, both as a participant and observer,” she says.
Many children don’t have these opportunities, and as an undergraduate at Yale University, Katharine created a photography program that served more than 350 low-income children who lived in housing projects throughout Connecticut. Since then, she has built her career around teaching at-risk youth how to use cameras and the written word as weapons of expression and empowerment, most recently as an artist-in-residence with San Francisco WritersCorps and as a photography instructor at Log Cabin Ranch, a detention center for male juveniles.
“I see tremendous potential in Silicon Valley's diverse ethnic communities,” Katharine says. “I believe we must continue to nurture grassroots agencies which address the specific needs of these diverse communities, while simultaneously enabling communication and collaboration across boundaries.”
The arts provide one way to build such bridges, and as an advisor to the Nelson Fund at Community Foundation Silicon Valley, Katharine supports a wide array of arts education programs. “Equal access to the arts is essential to a healthy democracy,” she says. “Through my work with CFSV, I've been able to expand opportunities for strong Bay Area arts agencies which share this vision.”
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