Dear Friends,
I am excited to share Variety the Children’s Charity of New York’s first compendium of essays written by our grantees. This edition, entitled Making the Case: Transforming the Lives of Children Through the Arts, includes three unique and powerful case studies about how effective arts programming can fundamentally change the lives of some of our communities’ most vulnerable children.
At Variety New York we believe in supporting the most innovative and thoughtful work happening at the grassroots level. It is here that real solutions to the problems facing society are born and nurtured. The contributors to this publication not only understand that the arts are critical to the success of young people, but they understand the unique challenges, nuances and opportunities embedded in executing this work. These writers and their colleagues at their respective organizations have spent years reflecting on their practice and implementing programmatic and organizational processes that truly enhance the work and deepen the impact for youth.
It is our hope that as you read these essays you will gain new insight into the ways arts programming for youth can be delivered most effectively. We encourage you to use the pearls of wisdom in this publication to enhance your own practice as a youth service provider, a funder, a Board member, or a volunteer. This year, the three outstanding pieces include:
- Open Art Surgery: Preparing Professional Artists to Work with Underserved Populations, by Michele Kotler, Founder and Executive Director of Community-Word Project,
- The 7 Elements of Successful Community Building: A comparison of communities created out of disaster and those built during the Kids Creative arts education programs in New York City, by Adam Jacobs, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Kids Creative, and
- Creating Interschool Tolerance After School: Leveling the Playing Field in Urban High Schools, by Lily Raabe, Program Associate at Opening Act.
As a local funder focused exclusively on grassroots organizations using the arts to transform the lives of youth, Variety New York has the privilege of closely and intensively examining a niche field. As such, we work diligently to support those organizations that are not only able to change the lives of the youth they work with, but also have the ability to change the way the youth and arts field operates. The three organizations represented here have identified game changing ways to do this work better. They have concretized methods to effectively train teaching artists, determined ways to build community through creativity rather than crisis, and developed strategies to work in complex urban education systems to create equitable opportunities for youth.
The work executed and documented by organizations like Community-Word Project, Kids Creative and Opening Act as well as all of Variety New York’s grantees are changing young people’s lives. We hope that their stories inspire you to become a part of this work or deepen your existing commitment. Together we can grow this field! Together we can make the case for the arts to transform the lives of youth!
Best regards,
Jessica Bynoe
Executive Director
Click to download Making the Case: Transforming the Lives of Children Through the Arts.