by Anna Bauman

STA will not be renewing its lease with the Kansas City Young Audiences organization, currently housed on the third and fourth floors of the M&A building, as of November 2016.

After a ten-year partnership between the two organizations, KCYA will move to a new location in order to accommodate the growth of the STA community, according to STA president Nan Bone.

“KCYA was interested in continuing their partnership with STA, but St. Teresa’s has grown and shared space for two large organizations is getting more difficult,” Bone said. “We have extended their lease for one more year to give them time to find a space that fills their needs.”

According to Bone, nothing has been decided about what the space will be used for.

“Right now we are visiting with teachers to share their ideas of what they would like to see in that space,” Bone said. “The ideas are many and broad but nothing has been finalized.”

According to KCYA executive director Martin English, the organization will be sad to leave campus.

“It’s been a great partnership for us,” English said. “We’re very sorry to have to leave campus.”

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In addition to office spaces, KCYA currently utilizes the STA dance studio, black box theater, auditorium and the Commons for after school programs and summer camps for many different areas of art, dance, theater and music.

According to English, the partnership began when STA was looking to renovate its spaces and KCYA was interested in building a community school of the arts. Both went to the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation for financing.

“We decided it would be much cheaper and easier to raise the funds to come in and be in a synergistic partnership in an existing space than build our own,” English said. “And STA realized it’d be great to have a community partner and something that would draw students to the campus here. So the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation gave each of our organizations contingent money, but basically our funding and [STA’s] funding was contingent upon the partnership and so we put the partnership together.”

English said he believes the partnership has been beneficial to both organizations.

“It works really well because it generates income for STA in the way of rent and it utilizes a bunch of their space that generally would go unutilized,” English said. “It works out well that everyday at 3 p.m. [STA students] go home and [KCYA] students arrive, so those spaces are getting used and they’re generating income from it.”

In addition to financial benefits, English believes each organization draws students to the other.

“We’ve had STA students participating in our programs, and we’ve brought lots of students on campus, some of whom I would assume end up going to STA,” English said.

According to English, the location has been ideal for KCYA.

“It’s a wonderful location,” English said. “We really hate to leave, it’s a beautiful campus. All of our students and parents feel safe here, it’s convenient.”

According to English, KCYA is currently in the process of finding a new location, but finds it challenging because they need access to theater space.

“It’s a little bit of a challenge for us to to find another space,” English said. “But we’re looking at it as an opportunity as well, so maybe we can land in a different space and serve additional students that we don’t serve here.”