Read More“It was something new that I wanted to try and it was totally different than what I expected. It was great learning about my strengths and weaknesses and discovering a love of photography. But mostly, I loved working with a lot of new friends. Our art had a lot of personal meaning behind it and it was surprising to hear other students telling so many stories about their art.”
CAW Youth Apprentice Natajha Graham
Creative Art Work’s Remote Digital Public Art Youth Employment Program was the first remote job for all of our Youth Apprentices, and what a job it was! In addition to learning serious skills for the digital workplace, they grappled with challenging topics and crafted compelling messages about social justice issues, including racial and gender equality, animal rights, domestic abuse, child labor, climate change, family separation, mental hygiene and drug addiction, and the rising cost of health care. The quantity and quality of the work produced is staggering.
Read MoreThis summer, Creative Art Works is offering a Remote Digital Public Art Youth Employment Program that employs more than 40 teens and young adults from all over New York City. This digital art and photography apprenticeship is designed to build real-life employment skills for the digital age. It also gives Youth Apprentices (YA’s) a voice in the conversation about some of the social justice issues that have gained momentum in the past year. The work is intense, with daily deadlines and regular feedback from fellow YA’s, CAW teaching staff, and guest commentators from major branding, graphics and media companies.
Read MoreJerome Montrone and Teddy Swenson share a few brief words on their connection to our work. We are also pleased to introduce this year's youth honorees — drum roll, please! — Kashmonae LaShure and Devalis Carver!
Read MoreTo our students and youth apprentices especially: You are the center of all that we do, and we stand in solidarity with you in stating unequivocally that Black lives matter.
We also want you to know what solidarity looks like to us. It means that we will continue:
to see you -- your innate worth, your resiliency, and your dignity,
to generate opportunities for you to develop your creativity and self-determination, which we see as a fundamental human right, and
to amplify your voices and support your dreams.
How do organizations provide a Public Art Youth Employment program during a quarantine? Creative Art Works and Catholic Charities Alianza collaborated to develop a remote graphic design internship that created after-school jobs to over 40 students from Liberty High School. Interns learned the principles of effective design and how to use photo editing software. For a final project, each intern created posters that answer the question, "What do we want to hold on to from our lives before the pandemic?"
Read MoreAt Creative Art Works, we are proud that all management and administrative staff have direct personal and professional experience in the arts, education and/or youth development in addition to nonprofit management. Most of us remain active as performers or artists in our spare time. Our new Intern is no exception. Read our engaging conversation with Melisa in our latest blog.
Read More“During ‘turn and talk,’ it’s natural for students to share about their cultures. Sometimes it’s just a little thing, like the word for a color in their language. Other times, they might talk about the ways customs and traditions are different in their country, or maybe not too different. They learn a lot from each other.”
— Teaching Artist Fabio Puentes
Read MoreAccording to a study by the Wallace Foundation, middle school students say they want three things from an art program: they want to learn real skills from real teaching artists in a real art space. Last fall, Creative Art Works hit the trifecta at two after-school programs in The Bronx. Students at MS 45 created their own comic book characters in the Cartooning and Anatomy class, while students at IS 254 explored a variety of techniques in a formal drawing class. Both these semester-long programs were taught by CAW Teaching Artists and offered a deep dive into a single subject.
Read MoreStudents at Hamilton Grange Middle School are gaining a deeper understanding of the humanities thanks to Creative Art Works in-school program which aligns art projects with the essential questions and major themes of core academic courses. This integrated approach encourages students to draws connections between different areas of study by emphasizing related concepts across subject matters.
Read More“I like the way I’m growing as a person. I never used to listen to anybody. I never wanted to do what I was supposed to do, but now I understand as you get older, a whole lot of things change. You’ve got to move different.”
– CAW Youth Apprentice Deysean Nesbit
Read More“One thing I learned painting this mural was patience. I had a lot of arguments with my teammates over the summer, but I had to learn to get over it. We used a lot of tools this summer, but two big ones were compassion and teamwork.”
– CAW Youth Apprentice Floyd Thompson
Read More"Most of us took this job in order to make money, but something else came out of it – we also helped our families, we contributed to the Bronx Renaissance. I learned that when a community comes together and we work hard, we can get something done, and the whole community will be improved by it, they will enjoy it, and they will respect it."
– CAW Youth Apprentice Gabriel Bono
Creative Art Works has produced many fine murals in and around Jacob Schiff School Campus which is home to our program partners, Hamilton Grange Middle School and PS 192. CAW murals inside the campus and along 138th Street include Magic with Logic, Dreams of a Creative Revolution, Migrations, and The More You Give the More You Grow. This summer, our Youth Apprentices added a stunning new mural to this impressive collection. Peace of Our Time celebrates the history and cultural diversity of Hamilton Heights and pays homage to the contributions of migrant communities.
Read MoreThis summer, Creative Art Works is offering drop-in classes for children, pre-teens, and teens, at the Children's Center in Lower Manhattan, an ACS short-term housing facility. The temporary nature of residency at Children's Center means that young people can only participate in a handful of classes, and their experience and skills vary greatly. It's a challenging environment, but we have the right people for the job.
Read MoreThis summer, Creative Art Works hired a Shay Epps, a former Youth Apprentice, to work as our Field Correspondent for our summer Public Art Youth Employment program. Shay was our eyes and ears on the ground, visiting all six of our worksites on a regular basis until she became a familiar presence. Shay demonstrated a gift for capturing candid photos and honest interviews. We asked her to reflect on her experiences.
Read More“This art is magnificent.…when our families see this art, they too will be positive instead of negative. They too will be hopeful instead of hopeless. Your art is beautiful. You are bringing beauty to our families. Your art is interesting. When they're waiting for their cases to be called, they now have something to contemplate. Your art is inspiring. Your art is thoughtful. Your art says “Yes!”
- Bronx Family Court Judge Karen Lupuloff
Read MoreWow, I loved that film. It speaks to the work that we do… to help girls write and form their own stories around social justice issues. Because, if a girl can tell her story and save her own life, she can save the lives of girls everywhere. And you do that through this film, and all the other films – you make a difference.
Read More
