TBEY Arts Center featured on ‘Today’
Nonprofit looks to connect young people with arts programs
When Contessa Lobley was 16 and a student at Milwaukee’s John Marshall High School, she started a nonprofit organization called TBEY Arts Center. Her program is dedicated to connecting young people in Milwaukee with visual arts, dance, music and theatre programs.
Her nonprofit, Tessa’s Black Entertainment and Youth Center, was featured on Hoda & Jenna on “Today” on Jan. 15, 24 years later.
Lobley said to Donna Farizan of “Today” in her interview that she started her nonprofit when she heard there were going to be some budget cuts in Milwaukee Public Schools.
“At that age, it was devastating,” she said on the show. “I was just thinking of the kids behind me who may not even have an arts program. I was thinking of all the ways to fix the problem.”
Contessa Lobley and her nonprofit organization, TBEY Arts Center, were featured on “Today” on Monday. She started this nonprofit at age 16 to provide arts programming to youths who may not get that opportunity in the Milwaukee area.
She also said now her nonprofit provides art programming at MPS.
She said on “Today” that her passion is in the arts, especially in dance, and she wanted everyone to experience arts in their lives. “Today” reported she worked with as many as 22,000 students in the past 24 years.
“Art is therapy,” she said on “Today.” “We all need art ... all levels in our lives.”
According to the TBEY Arts Center website, the organization has classes dedicated to the arts taught to youth members who otherwise might have little or no opportunity to learn these skills due to location or cost. TBEY Arts Centers also does several annual theater productions, such as “The Little Mermaid Jr.” or “A Journey Through Dance.”
TBEY Arts Center also provides an after-school arts program and a summer camp that focuses on arts techniques, themes and concepts in the four core areas of arts. The nonprofit also does arts programming for schools, community organizations, group homes and churches.
“Art is life,” Lobley said on “Today.”
For more information on TBEY International, visit https://tbey.org/home.