Mission & History — YAYA

The YAYA Arts Center is open Monday - Friday 10am - 6pm. All current YAYA programs require advance registration. Our staff is working partially on site and partially from home; please call the office at 504.529.3306 for any questions and we’ll direct you to the right person. "YAYA is an acronym for 'Young Aspirations Young Artists.' There is also a Yoruban word ya-ya, meaning "eldest daughter," and in New Orleans, the food capital of the South, the term has developed a colloquial meaning through the phrase "gumbo ya-ya," a rich local soup featuring sometimes seafood, sometimes meat, always vegetables and rice. So it fits, this odd sounding name, on a variety of levels, to describe what Jana (YAYA's founder) gave to her students. It means hope, art, food, and family. It is local and international, Anglo and African. It is what the first eight YAYA Guild members came to be called: the YAYAs."–Claudia Barker,YAYA! Young New Orleans Artists and Their Storytelling Chairs(and How to YAYA in...