impact progress report
OurMission
Art Start uses the creative process to nurture the voices, hearts, and minds of historically marginalized youth, offering a space for them to imagine, believe, and represent their creative vision for their lives and communities.
Through consistent workshops with long-term partners including youth organizations, schools, alternative sentencing programs, and residences for youth and families experiencing homelessness, art becomes the starting point of a larger life process, and the start of larger conversations about the future of our communities.
OurModel
Art Start uses a youth-centered approach to education and mentorship. Our programs guide young people to appreciate who they innately are, discovering what they have to offer the world, encouraging them to think critically, ask important questions, and identify the opportunities on their paths.
Many of our students are experiencing times of instability and transition, in systems that often stifle creativity. We focus on providing safe space for artistic expression and exploration, with an emphasis on the creative process that encourages positive risk taking, personal development, and future ideation
For over 30 years, we’ve worked with more than 25,000 young people with the help of 12,000 artist educators and volunteers The Art Start model has won national recognition as a highly effective way to transform young lives.
1 GOALS our2024
COLLEGE READINESS AND ACCESS
Art Start seeks to expand access to College Readiness and Planning into our Creative Connections programming. Yearto-date, we have implemented projects that generate interest in and explore various pathways to higher education in the arts. We hired an Academic Advisor to work on site with youth seeking counseling on college exploration, applications, financial aid, and roadmapping, and we have begun organized campus visits and application workshops.
CERTIFIED APPRENTICESHIPS
Art Start seeks to reduce barriers to employment for the next generation of leaders from historically marginalized communities and promote inclusivity in the creative economy by fostering a more open and diverse career landscape. In July, we successfully completed our first cohort of Creative Industry Apprentices in partnership with Phillips Auction House, leading to permanent full-time employment for two of the three apprentices. We are working toward expansion of this inaugural model with other arts institutions.
5-YEAR SUSTAINABILITY PLAN
We are currently in the second year of our five year sustainability plan, focusing on systems and accountability surrounding strategic financial reserves, operational succession planning, and evolving board governance.
4 8 0
YOUTH PARTICIPANTS
3 0 6 WORKSHOPS
2,189
HOURS OF CREATIVE PROGRAMMING
47 INDUSTRY COLLABORATORS & COMMUNITY PARTNERS
ACONTINUUMOFPATHWAYS INTOTHEARTS
■ MONTHLY CREATIVE SESSIONS
Open studios to explore an array of mediums
■ CUSTOMIZED SERVICE PLANS
1:1 goal planning with Licensed Social Worker
■ PROJECT ACCELATOR GRANTS
Bringing independent art projects to life
■ EMERGING ARTIST RESIDENCY
9-months of mentoring, networking, & art-making
■ PORTRAIT PROJECT
In-depth identity exploration & creative collaboration
■ PAID WORK OPPORTUNITIES
Summer internships & yearlong apprenticeships
■ INDUSTRY COLLABORATIONS
Direct mentorship & professional learning
■ COLLEGE READINESS AND PLANNING
Direct mentorship & professional learning
■ PHILLIPS APPRENTICESHIP
Full-time, paid, NYS Dept of Labor certified apprenticeship
DIVERSITYIN THECREATIVE ECONOMY
In New York City, people of color make up 68% of the total population, but account for only 34% of workers in all creative occupations. In metro Milwaukee, where Art Start also operates, only 13% of creative jobs are held by people of color
Changing this disparity involves more than just diversity and inclusion Research shows that enhancing equity in the creative sector requires starting with youth, providing opportunities for arts experiences and professional development, including nontraditional pathways like Art Start's Creative Connections program
CREATIVE CONNECTIONS
177 1606 YOUTH PARTICIPANTS
10
OF YOUTH WHO COMPLETED AN ARTIST RESIDENCY OR INTERNSHIP:
GREW IN GOAL & GROWTH ORIENTATION CREATIVE PROGRAMMING HOURS
ONGOING CREATIVE INDUSTRY COLLABORATORS
93%
GREW IN APPLIED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING
89%
A WEEK IN NEW YORK CITY
CREATIVECAREEREXPLORATION
This Spring, Art Start’s Emerging Artist Residents joined up in New York City for a week of networking, industry partner collaborations, professional critique, and public art immersion The agenda included visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hearst Magazines, Dr. Jart+, Color Factory NYC, Shake Shack, and Kurt Geiger.
Now in its third year, the annual Creative Career Exploration Travel supports emerging creatives with expanding their network of opportunity nationally, and practicing the art of work travel.
2023 - 2024 Creative Industry Apprentice: Phillips
MARKANTHONY
Mark Anthony began with Art Start as a Creative Connections participant in 2023, consistently attending Open Hours and Creative Sessions at Art Start Studios He had recently withdrawn from college due to high tuition prices and feeling unsure of his area of study. He was in the process of completing an internship on the Lower East Side where his interest in fashion design and clothing started to take shape Drawn to art and the arts world, he found his way to Art Start Mark Anthony was the first applicant for our new Creative Industries Apprenticeship and was an excellent candidate, being accepted after a competitve interview process Throughout the program, he learned quickly while demonstrating dedication, curiosity, and poise. In July, he graduated from the year-long apprenticeship, accepting a full-time offer of permanent employment from Phillips as an Inventory Coordinator, while also serving as a mentor to the second cohort of Art Start Industry Apprentices following in his footsteps
■ MIXED MEDIA
■ MUSIC
■ THEATER
■ FOOD JUSTICE
■ FAMILY PORTRAIT PROJECT
■ FAMILY ART NIGHTS
■ INDUSTRY & CULTURE VISITS
THROUGHOUT THE CITY
Creative Collectives programs take place at residences for families experiencing homelessness, non-secure youth detention facilities, schools and community centers, where youth undergoing transience and socio-economic instability are most vulnerable to mental health challenges, marginalization, and adverse childhood experiences. Through a Healing-Centered Engagement model, Art Start uses the creative arts to counteract anxiety, depression, and isolation by harnessing creative imagination, joy, and agency on a frequent and consistent basis FREQUENT& CONSISTENTcreative WORKSHOPS
PromotingACCESSto theArtsthrougha healing-centered engagementmodel
Art Start’s Creative Collectives program addresses the gap in arts programming among underserved groups and lifts the barriers to accessing arts programs Lower income neighborhoods in NYC lack the most access to arts, especially in the Bronx where more than 42% of the schools there lack arts teachers and 50% lack a teaching artist and cultural partnership are located there
CREATIVE COLLECTIVES
CREATIVE ARTS WORKSHOPS
192 303 YOUTH PARTICIPANTS
583 HOURS OF CREATIVE PROGRAMS
SPOTLIGHT CREATIVE COLLECTIVES
artstartfamilyportraitproject "QUOTE."
- Name Age
Family engagement is critical to the work Art Start does with children at our partner locations, year round Families part of the Creative Collectives program at our partner sites were invited to participate in our annual Art Start Family Portrait Project, Volume 13 This is a multimedia project and platform for the powerful stories, voices and images of New York City families experiencing homelessness Through portraits and storytelling, families invite the world to see them because.
It consists of a weekend-long portrait shoot with professional hair, make-up, and studio photography, as well as oral history interviews for families to tell their favorite stories, all culminating with their own exhibition and publication
■ EXHIBITIONS
■ YOUTH PANELS
■ PERFORMANCES
■ PUBLICATIONS
■ PUBLIC TRANSIT CAMPAIGN
■ SEEMEBECAUSE.ORG ARCHIVE
■ CULTURAL PARTNERSHIPS
APUBLICPLATFORM TOAMPLIFYTHE VOICES&VISIONS OFOURCOMMUNITY
Art can be a powerful starting point for bigger conversations about what communities envision for themselves and what they want others to see and know about them
Art Start’s Public Exchanges Program is a public platform for the voices and visions of the Art Start youth and families to drive their own narratives, lead conversations on the issues impacting their lives, and represent themselves throughout public media and art spaces, from galleries, to publications, to ads on the subway.
PUBLIC EXCHANGES
SPOTLIGHT
Volume12
Exhibition In Partnership with Center for Community Alternatives
Brownsville, New York
Made Possible by a Humanities New York Action Grant
Art Start’s See Me Because Project offers youth and young adults from historically marginalized communities a framework to explore their own complex personal narratives through the creative arts, oral histories, and portraiture
This iteration of the project, Volume 12, centers youth whose lives have been affected by incarceration and the justice system We collaborated with participants over the course of 10 weeks through workshops, photoshoots, and interviews, offering the space and support for self expression and identity exploration, towards a collective goal of reducing stigma associated with justice-involved youth through their own creative self-determination
by
for See Me Because Volume 12
Drawings
Shaleek,
$1,394,600
$1,394,600
Thank you for your continued support.
Your contributions propel hundreds of youth and young adults through their unique creative process, connecting them to personal and creative support, career opportunities, and a platform to represent their vision for their lives and our world
