Yes Arts

Yes Arts is an arts center in the heart of Frankfort fostering a safe, inclusive space where all people can create and heal. Our Mission is to mobilize the power of community and the arts to disrupt the cycle of addiction. 

In February 2015, artist Doris Thurber’s daughter Maya died of a heroin/fentanyl overdose. A year and a half later, convinced that tackling the massive opioid crisis would require all the skills and engagement our community could muster, Thurber joined fellow artists Joanna Hay and Jennifer Zingg to launch Hands Healing HeArts, a weekly arts program within Franklin County Drug Court that guided participants through writing, visual arts, theater and other creative processes to help give expression to their feelings, experiences and struggles. Garnering strong community support, the organization has grown to include several programs that address recovery, prevention, and resilience at all stages of the addiction cycle. 

In 2019, Hands Healing HeArts rebranded to Yes Arts and in 2021, coming out of the pandemic, we found our new home as the Yes Arts Center at City Hall

Today, we still continue our partnership with the recovery participants involved in the Franklin County Drug Court through our ART (Achieving Recovery Together) Program. The ART Program is led through a unique blend of Art Therapy and Peer Support (lived experience) and uses arts experiences to enhance participants success in early recovery. 

Yes Arts now offers a robust youth prevention program called YAY (Yes Arts Youth). The YAY program creates connections for young people (birth - high school) through an evidence-based, data-driven approach designed to offer protective factors against ACES (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and other traumas. Yes Arts Youth programs are for all children and are designed as a primary (universal) prevention model to reach children at all stages. YAY programs are structured with program leaders and youth mentors who are trained on topics such as trauma-informed care, implicit bias, conscious discipline, neurodiversity, ACES risk and protective factors, and mental health first aid. We partner with local teaching artists to coordinate high-quality arts classes, camps, and workshops to meet the needs of families in our community. YAY raises funds to ensure accessibility of programs for all and offers scholarships. YAY exists to promote healthy development and alternatives to substance use.

Community programs round out our comprehensive approach to disrupting the cycle and are designed to help reduce the stigma surrounding addiction. We offer training opportunities for our Yes Arts Program Team and other community partners such as trauma-informed care, implicit bias, conscious disciple, mental health first aid, neurodiversity, child abuse, family thrive and ACES risk and protective factors - to name a few! We are the home to a professional art gallery featuring 3 rooms full of local and regional work that rotates quarterly. We also manage a teaching artists roster of 60+ and support our Black Women Artists of Frankfort network.

We are excited to welcome new volunteers to support our work!