At Anima Arts we’re on a mission to provide community-based art programs to advance equitable public health education, resources, and policies for children and their families. We believe that healthy, meaningful movement and art is central to our well-being. We value creative movement and dance because they offer opportunities to experience health through kinesthetic learning and embodiment. Our events are environments of discovery activating physicality, artistry, intuition, experimentation, inquiry, and curiosity. Anima Arts’ programs operate within our non-profit, Dandelion Arts Collective, an arts-in-health organization dedicated to increasing health equity and public health promotion through performing arts education.
We create positive and meaningful art experiences for our participants with the goals of increasing
- Intrinsic motivation to engage in activities that enhance children’s well-being
- Proprioception and interoception, or the awareness and attunement to physical sensations around and within the body, including those related to emotions and mental health
- Movement literacy and skills as a positive contributor to multiple modalities of intelligence and education
- Children’s feeling of interconnectedness with others, and the natural world in which they exist
- Public health education, resources, and services
- Frequency, and number of family and community members modeling and creating health promoting activities and equitable health policies for children
- Confidence, capacity, and opportunity for children and families to be change makers in their communities
We strive to create spaces where children can find freedom and belonging in their body and spirit, allowing them to engage with the world around them with creativity, confidence, and compassion. We support families’ healthy relationships and contribute to a larger culture of health in our local community. We believe in the power of arts in public health to build equity, social connection, and mental and physical health for those that experience it.
Anima Arts include a broad range of cultural representation in music, imagery, positive expression of diverse populations and environments, and a range of physical activities as inspiration for movement examples. Creative movement creates a safe and all-embracing space to honor each participant’s identity. We believe that arts inherently hold the power of inclusivity, and we strive to be a supportive environment to every person that engages in Anima Arts activities.
We work from the spirit and power of equity. Our team believes the arts hold a powerful voice in transforming the resources, opportunities and policies that cause health inequities. We seek to trust, work alongside, and be guided by the calls for liberation expressed by families and children experiencing the multiple and intersecting forms of social and economic injustice, exclusion, and oppression. With ongoing efforts to raise our consciousness and act with respect, we use our resources to contribute to collective actions of social justice for positive change. Funds raised through our partnerships, donations, and community classes provide free and sliding scale programming and contribute to social service organizations with shared values. We strive to recognize and honor each child’s strength in our community so we may work toward equity and deepen our collective humanity.
Anima means “soul” and the verb animar means “to encourage, enliven, and cheer on”. We work from this space celebrating and encouraging our truest expressions and celebrating the unique gift each child and family is to this world.
Our Guiding Principles
Health Equity
Community Strength
Art as a Social Determinant of Health
Community Centered Research & Practices
Co-Learning
Collaboration
Cultural Humility
Creativity
Play
Joy
Anima Arts Land Acknowledgment: Our programming resides on the Traditional Territories of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Ute Nations.
What People Say
“We had so much fun… I loved it all. Well paced, just enough variety and time with each activity!”
– Families Moving Together Parent
“I like being here. I like being in this class.”
– Creative Dance Participant, age 4
“I enjoyed the open and all inclusive energy that each class had.”
– Outdoor Class Participant
“This was a great reminder that we could move like this as a family in our living room.”
– Families Moving Together Parent
“You all exceeded my expectations by leaps and bounds.”
– City of Longmont Event Coordinator
“My kids loved having class with Mimi! They were all actively engaged and excited about what they were learning.”
– Spark! Discovery Preschool Faculty
Let’s build something together.
I praise the dance, for it frees people
from the heaviness of matter
and binds the isolated to community.
I praise the dance, which demands everything:
health and a clear spirit and a buoyant soul.
Dance is a transformation of space, of time, of people,
who are in constant danger of becoming all brain,
will, or feeling.
Dancing demands a whole person, one who is
firmly anchored in the center of his life, who is
not obsessed by lust for people and things
and the demon of isolation in his own ego.
Dancing demands a freed person, one who vibrates
with the balance of all his powers.
-Unknown
Anima Arts 