Causes: Arts & Culture, Arts Education, Unknown

Mission: Creative Art Works is a 35-year-old nonprofit that empowers young people through the visual and multimedia arts. Our programs equip children, teens and young adults with essential tools and skills; connect them with community, academic success and career opportunities; and inspire them to reach for new possibilities. Working in underserved neighborhoods of NYC, we provide in-school and out-of-school time classes, public art youth employment programs, and community art-making events in partnership with public schools, recreation and cultural centers, and juvenile detention and foster care facilities, parks, and libraries. Our programs build confidence, unlock a love of learning, and teach valuable technical and developmental skills while creating profound connections between our young constituents, their art and their communities. Students are never charged for participation.

Direct beneficiaries per year: 2,000 young people.

Programs: Public Art Youth Employment Program: Young adults 14-24 years old are given full-time summer jobs and part-time jobs after school to create large-scale public art and multimedia projects in Manhattan, starting with concept development down to the final unveiling. Out-of-School Time programs provide students with enriching, dynamic arts-based activities outside the school day, incorporate elements of youth development, and enhance collaboration, confidence, creativity and critical thinking, thereby encouraging greater engagement in school, including stronger attendance and improved academic performance. In-school programs aim to mitigate the removal of arts education from NYC public schools by providing an arts-based or integrated curriculum during the school day. Professional teaching artists collaborate with school teaching staff and administrators to help them meet mandated arts education requirements and align lesson planning with core curriculum and arts standards.