The Heart of Our Work
Confronting the Creativity Crisis
Variety the Children’s Charity of New York works “to support grassroots non-profit organizations in the Tri-State area whose programs use the arts as a catalyst to transform the lives of under-served children.”
When reading our mission you may ask, “Why the arts? Why children? How can you ‘transform lives?'”
The answers to these questions lie in the fact that we are facing a creativity crisis in our country. Without the arts as a foundation for intellectual, personal, emotional and professional development, our communities’ young people are growing up ill-equipped and unprepared for successful lives. For the first time in 50 years arts education is on the decline with 60% of children having no access to the arts. Meanwhile, the arts have been proven to introduce and develop all of the skills that are deemed valuable, yet severely lacking in today’s workforce: creativity, innovation, flexibility, curiosity, communication, an appreciation for diversity, etc. The arts can nurture these skills and fundamentally transform the lives of children to ensure they have everything they need to succeed as individuals and productive members of society.
Abandoning support of the arts for youth is a disservice not only for young people, but for the greater good of our communities. This is a crisis that must be reversed and Variety New York, with its grantees, is on the frontline of this paradigm shift.
For more information on our mission and how we are striving to end the creativity crisis click below.
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