0
Hip-hop superstar Pharrell Williams is setting up a youth center in his native Virginia to provide youngsters with an outlet for their creativity.
The Pharrell Williams Youth Center gained the backing of beauty care brand Kiehl’s which will work in tandem with Williams’ own From One Hand to Another charity.
The eco-friendly Pharrell Williams Youth Center will help to raise funds for Williams’ charity, From One Hand to Another Foundation, and is expected to open this year.
Pharrell said: “I wanted to provide people with the same opportunities I got. My teachers didn’t let me go until I had realised my potential. They taught me to fight my way out of a paper bag. Children need guidance and creative discipline and someone to be there when they fall. They also need a safe haven. At the moment, arts organisations across the US are having their funding cut and we can’t let that happen.”
On the building and creative space for young children, The Billionaire Boys Club founder said: “I want it to be a safe haven for children and a place that challenges them, encouraging them to be curious. We had a very easy creative dialogue.”
On being there to watch his children grow up and juggling interviews and work commitments, the N.E.R.D. frontman said: “We’re not going to be satisfied until you have to interview three mannequins hooked up with remote control that are controlled back in Virginia while we are being husbands and daddies.”