You can see the Dyckman Senior Center across the street from the front steps of PS/MS 278 – The Paula Hedbavny School in the Inwood neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, yet the students and the seniors rarely interacted until Creative Art Works offered a pair of intergenerational community artmaking events at the senior center this past winter and spring.
Read More
Every summer, we’re proud to welcome back returning youth apprentices and see how much they’ve grown. When we asked what brought them back, they all had more than one reason, but every single one mentioned that their teammates were a big part of what makes a summer job with CAW special.
Here are a few of their stories, in their own words.
Read More
“Knowledge is power and money is a life skill. Just being able to make informed decisions about spending and saving empowers young people, because knowing how money works is what's going to get you ahead financially. Just having our young people develop some financial literacy gives them access to things that they may never have thought were possible for them.”
— CAW Senior Program Manager Donna Manganello
Read More
Sketchbooks lie open, color palettes line the walls, and a team of young artists stands ready to present their vision. Through Creative Art Works' Public Art Youth Employment programs, CAW Youth Apprentices (YAs) become professional designers. Under the guidance of CAW Teaching Artists, our YAs had just over two weeks to conduct stakeholder discovery interviews, research neighborhood histories, synthesize all that they learned, and ultimately pitch their final concepts to real-world clients.
We took a front-row seat at all six of this summer’s pitch presentations. Here’s how our YAs brought their creative visions to life and won over their clients.
Read More
This new partnership with PS 102 is an in-school program that aligns with each grade's ELA curriculum, integrating literacy, personal identity, and social-emotional learning (SEL) through weekly art classes. The objective is for students to explore self-expression and build confidence by engaging with books, such as "I Like Myself" by Karen Beaumont, before creating art projects in response to the text. Previous projects have included self-portraits, three-part storybooks, blackout poetry, and animal portraits made with handmade clay stamps.
Read More
Students in Creative Art Works’ graphic design programs explored design and their sense of identity. Each project asked them to do the same essential work: Take what they know, understand, or notice, and give it a form others can understand. That is representation, and it’s one of the most valuable skills a person can develop in school and beyond.
Read More
In the heart of Chelsea, a neighborhood known for its hip galleries, the most exclusive art opening this month may have been in a basement classroom at Hudson High School of Learning Technologies. The room could barely contain all the art produced by over 60 students. As students moved through the gallery, proudly talking about their own art and genuinely appreciating the work of their peers, it became clear that each piece reflected a year of self-discovery and interpersonal growth.
Read More
At Creative Art Works, we are invested in developing young people to meet the challenges of the modern workforce, whether they ultimately choose to pursue a creative career or not. Our Character Design and Advanced Illustration & Worldbuilding Programs are paid internships offered at four NYC Career and Technical Education (CTE) High Schools. Working alone or in groups, interns are challenged to create their own fully-realized characters with backstories, personality traits, and strengths and weaknesses. It’s a lot of work, but it’s also a lot of fun.
Read More
There are essential questions that inform all Creative Art Works lesson plans. These questions ask students and youth apprentices to look inward, analyze their surroundings, and connect with others.
Read More
Adventures in Artland is a guided journey of self-exploration through artmaking, reading, movement, and play. The aim of the program is to engage elementary school students after school by offering diverse activities that keep them energized and eager to create.
Read More
Artopia isn’t a place — it’s a state of mind. Artopia is a teaching philosophy that allows Teaching Artists to create lesson plans that draw on their personal strengths and interests. It is an ethos that values student-driven outcomes. And it is an ideal learning environment centered on creativity and open-ended explorations of artmaking.
Read More
At PS 153, The Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. School, in Harlem, the art room hums with energy. Students sway in their seats, trying (and mostly failing) to silently mouth the words to “K-pop Demon Hunters” while painting their newest creations. Seeing these students sing while they paint was deeply heartwarming. It’s rare to see so much unfiltered joy in a classroom. At the same time, this CAW integrated art and literacy program helps students in grades 1-3 build comprehension and retention skills by responding to classic picture books through drawing, painting, and sculpting.
Read More
Before the weather cooled off and pumpkin spice lattes were back on the menu, Creative Art Works was helping New York City kids and teens get ready for the new school year at three community art-making events. While these free projects are fun for the entire family, they also help students transition to a new grade and prepare to focus on learning in a variety of ways.
Read More
“The guidebook these Youth Apprentices created is remarkable. It is a fusion of art and information that transforms confusion into clarity, replaces uncertainty with understanding. This guidebook will reach thousands of families and provide a crucial starting point for navigating Family Court.”
In our first digital arts project for the NYC Family Court, our artist team designed a printed guidebook to help visitors understand the people and procedures that strive to protect NYC families at all five NYC County Courthouses. The publication center youth perspective and is being implemented with the support of the NYS Unified Court System, Office for Justice Initiatives.
Read More
“We’re trying to showcase that art is everywhere you go in West Harlem. We spoke to artists who are right next-door thanks to residencies through WHAA. And we spoke to so many people that you wouldn't think of as artists, like the owner of Manna’s Soul Food and the halal cart man. They both said, ‘This is an art. You have to put your soul in it.’ Even the barber said, ‘I'm painting a canvas.’ And when you're putting your all into something, it is art.”
— Teaching Artist Assistant-in-Training Alison Martinez
Read More
““This art can be viewed in so many different ways. You might see something that someone else might not see. It looks so simple at first glance—it's simple colors, simple designs, simple structure. But the process that went behind this is so much more than you would've thought.”
— CAW Youth Apprentice Kamila Lazur
Read More
The room is filled with the sounds of laughter and music and the smell of fresh pizza. Scores of young people and their parents are playing pool, shooting a Nerf basketball, or just hanging out. It seems like everybody is taking selfies in front of a vibrant mural that features images specific to Harlem, such as a trumpet player, the A train, and a boom box, as well images taken from sports and video games, many of which are rendered in eight-bit style. We are not a Dave and Busters and we are most certainly not at a Chuck E. Cheese. We are in a game room at the Grant Houses in West Harlem, where Creative Art Works Youth Apprentices have just repainted three walls with art by youth for youth.
Read More
"You know that saying, 'It takes a village to raise a child?' That's what this program feels like, because everyone is working together on one big idea."
— CAW Youth Apprentice Hilary Lee
Read More
“This is my first job, and I think it has shown me the value of hard work. I’m passionate about writing and creating stories and I think it’s really beautiful that we are helping the community by telling their story through art.”
Read More