The Door – A Center of Alternatives, Inc. was founded in 1972 as a multi-service youth development agency to provide a full range of integrated services at a single site, free of charge to anyone between the ages of 12 and 21. The Door’s Arts Program spans the disciplines of dance, visual arts, music, theater, and creative writing and embodies both the spirit of the Door community and our commitment to serving youth holistically. The Door offers a safe, confidential, and accepting environment where young people can access arts programs alongside a wide range of additional support services. At The Door, the arts are purposefully woven into all of our multi-layered services in order to most effectively engage and support young people.
With ongoing support from Variety the Children’s Charity of New York, The Door’s visual arts program has continued to grow and evolve over the past year. One of our major efforts this year is integrating all of The Door’s arts programs to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and encourage young artists to explore new art forms. We are thrilled to announce the recent release of our first music video. Using skills learned in The Door’s music and evolving videography programs, young people worked together to write and produce an original song and then to envision, direct, shoot, and edit an accompanying music video. Similar interdisciplinary projects include visual artists working alongside musicians to create cover art for our most recent album, and a summer yearbook project incorporating graphic design, literary arts, and a college access component where young people interviewed participants and staff, wrote about their projects in summer intensive courses, took pictures, and created a layout.
The collaborative spirit exhibited at The Door is reflective of the power of creative forums, particularly the open-minded potential of youth to push boundaries, support one another, and forge new connections. The recent collaborations within the arts program demonstrate of the spirit of The Door and the culture we all strive for: a culture of working together enthusiastically and creatively to build something larger than the sum of its parts. The Door is extremely grateful to Variety the Children’s Charity of New York for supporting our visual arts program, enabling us to develop and expand these collaborations.