INDIANAPOLIS: Marion County Commission on Youth (MCCOY) had recently organized a colorful celebration: "The Art of Youth" at the Indianapolis Art Center Campus to raise funds for its various youth related activities. It was attended by over 200 people and sponsors of the special programs for the youth.

There were musical (New World Youth Orchestra) and theatrical (Asanti Children's Theatre) performances, including the colorful Punjabi folk dance by the Bhangra Empire. The delicious food war prepared by The Chef's Academy. The mission of MCCOY is to be a catalyst for the positive development of youth. KP Singh, an Indian community activist, delivered the keynote address: "Our Arts, Our Spirit, Our Humanity"

He underlined the importance of arts in the development of personality and observed that "arts have the power to emancipate us by awakening our collective moral accountability and responsibility to our time, place, spirit, and each other.

We must preserve, invest, and celebrate our treasured arts not as an afterthought but as a major priority and solemn commitment to assure their rightful place and significance to our spirit, especially to our young creative minds. "We must encourage our youth, early and often, to look at their future with a greater sense of urgency and responsibility to themselves and to their communities.

We must create programs that are innovative and imaginative and that help harness the strengths and build character of our youth. We must reward the "content of character and not the color of their skin," ethnicity, cultural traditions, or country of origin. "