Teachers College is teaming with ProjectArt, an award-winning New York-based arts education nonprofit, to bring free arts education to youth in underserved communities across New York City. The innovative partnership enables students who are teachers-in-training in Teachers College’s Art & Art Education programto teach visual arts classes to youth ages 4-17 in the city’s public libraries, advancing ProjectArt’s goal of cost-effectively and collaboratively addressing the arts education crisis.

“Too many schools do not provide arts education as a regular feature of their curriculum, which means the development of critical cognitive and expressive capacities is missing from students’ learning,” said Judith Burton, Professor and Chair of the Art & Art Education Program at Teachers College. “Our partnership will help redress this and open new and rich possibilities for youngsters’ education and the development of future teachers.”

“Teachers College will add world-class pedagogical and research resources to our efforts to tackle the national arts education crisis,” said Adarsh Alphons, Founder of ProjectArt. “We are delighted to partner with such an incredible institution.” 

All 24 students in TC’s Art & Art Education cohort will begin teaching ProjectArt’s classes this fall in six public libraries in Harlem, the South Bronx, Central Brooklyn and parts of Queens. TC will hold joint teacher training workshops at its Morningside Heights campus for all the visiting artists who work with ProjectArt. Additionally, The College will help develop a detailed assessment tool to evaluate the impact of arts education on youth. TC and ProjectArt will also jointly apply for funding to fortify their operations in the public libraries.

The benefits of arts education and broad access to the arts in general have been widely documented and are acknowledged by academics, teachers, parents and policymakers. Yet according to a recent report by New York City’s own Comptroller, “Instruction in the arts has been weakened by a decade of disinvestment and disincentives and a school accountability system – based on federal and state priorities – that fails to recognize the value of comprehensive arts education.”  And in a speech in 2012, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stated that “the arts opportunity gap is widest for children in high-poverty schools;” A situation he termed “an equity issue and a civil rights issue, just as is access to AP courses and other educational opportunities.”

ProjectArt offers its unique public library partnerships model, which includes the opportunity for youth to display their art in celebrated galleries, in 20 public library branches across the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan. Its founder, Adarsh Alphons, is a New York City artist and entrepreneur who, growing up in India, was once expelled from school for doodling. He switched schools and went on to present a drawing to Nelson Mandela and paint a commissioned work for Pope John Paul II.

“ProjectArt epitomizes how after-school programs can build on a foundation of collaboration and programmatic excellence to build creative communities on a local level, while supporting public institutions like our public libraries,” says New York City Councilman Costa Constantinides, Chair of the City Council’s Subcommittee on Libraries. 

Teachers College, the nation’s first and largest graduate school of education and perennially ranked among its very best, prides itself on ensuring that its art education trainees are consistently evaluated and well received as significant contributors to the art education programs in which they work. Fieldwork is considered a culminating experience in the program, which emphasizes the provision of grassroots, community-based education.

Teachers College’s art education graduates are consistently well received and evaluated as significant contributors to the art education programs in which they work. Fieldwork such as that provided through ProjectArt, is a culminating experience in students’ initial training.

ProjectArt is an award-winning New York-based arts education nonprofit that addresses the arts education crisis for youth in a highly innovative, collaborative and cost-effective way. Starting in underserved communities of New York City, and with the ultimate goal of a national roll-out, ProjectArt uses a unique public library-partnerships model to directly bring arts access to youth, provide a channel for youth to express their artistic visions, set goals and display their art in celebrated art galleries, all at no cost to the students. Currently, ProjectArt offers its programs in 20 public library branches across the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan.

Published Thursday, Sep. 10, 2015