Tags archives: Summer Program

  • Art for Progress (AFP) is set to launch its annual summer program for NYC public school students in July. Now in its sixth year, the program continues to evolve to address the needs of NYC’s young artists and musicians attending public schools across NYC. The program, funded by The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation, offers students interested in careers in the arts and music, summer guidance and instruction. For 2023, the program will shift to a mentorship focused program that offers select students the opportunity to work closely with professional artists across multiple genres including visual art, fashion design, music, and music production. Teaching artist Paula Parker addressing students- Art for Progress Summer Arts Program The long running program endured the challenging COVID years by creating an impactful online program that continued through 2021. In 2022, Art for Progress was very pleased to receive a three-year renewal for the funding of the program from The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation in 2022. With much joy, we returned to normal, in-person programming last year. A focused group of students and our energized teachers made the 2022 program a big success. Knowing the foundations approach and goals for the summer program, AFP’s Founder Frank Jackson set out to make the 2023 program the best one yet.  The message from the foundation has always been, what will you do to improve the program, and how will the program evolve over time to addres[...]
  • We are a little sad that next week will be our last week of the program and of course, summer is also winding down. We are fortunate and thankful that we can provide this program for NYC public school students. It was great getting to know many of our students. They were eager for the opportunity to learn from professional artists and find out more about careers in the arts. LOCATION: Bayard Rustin Education Complex, 351 West 18th Street, Room 341, New York, NY. CONTACT: Barry Komitor (347) 661- 2469 The program will offer some workshops that will be ongoing while others will be one-offs. Each week we'll post the schedule for the various workshops that will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mondays will be open arts day where students can work on music, visual arts and fashion design in an open, fun learning environment. Collaborations are encouraged! Special guest artists and speakers will also join us on Mondays. Our main teaching artists for 2022 are Barry Komitor (music) and Beláxis Buil (visual art, fashion). We are planning to have many guest artist teachers and speakers this year as well. Week 6: August 8th - August 12th Monday, August 8th - 12:00PM - 3:30PM - Open Arts  Open Arts happens each week and gives students the opportunity to choose what they want to work on. Our teachers and special guest teachers will offer guidance and assistance. *This weeks special guest artist speaker is fashion designer Gabe Pa[...]
  • Event performance celebrating the end of the summer program (2019). Now in its third year, Art for Progress’ summer program gives students the opportunity to learn about life as a professional artist, while also learning new advanced skills to help them achieve their goals. Funded by the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation with additional support from the Sansom Foundation, the program is taught by professional teaching artists with a long history of working with Art for Progress (AFP) in NYC’s Public Schools and other important projects. Thanks to the generous support of our sponsors, the program will be funded through 2021, which gives AFP the opportunity to expand and grow the program even more.  Over the years, the program has invited Grammy nominated musicians, prominent visual artists and high-level fashion designers as its guest speakers. It has been a valuable and exciting part of the program for students and highly rewarding for the artists. There’s no cost for students to attend. Though the program for this summer will be hosted online, it will be one of the best yet, due in large part to Art for Progress’ newly developed  online learning platform:  https://learn.artforprogress.org, which was created to optimize the experience for both our teachers and students. The new website includes many valuable features which will enhance learning and promote better communication. This summer’s program is planned over four weekends beginning July 25th and ending [...]