Inside Free Arts NYC’s Mission to Fight Poverty with Art

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Today, it's estimated that one in three children growing up in New York City lives in poverty. In 1997, recognizing how poverty restricts the possibility of disadvantaged children, Liz Hopfan, then a second grade teacher and volunteer for Free Arts LA, decided to bring the program to New York City. Over the last two decades, Free Arts NYC has brought free arts educations to over 30,000 children living in the city's underserved communities. Annually, the program currently serves 2,000 youths in upper Manhattan, the Bronx, and the city’s Lower East Side communities.

“We use art to help young people and families build the community, creativity, and problem solving skills, that serve as protective factors, to help buffer them against challenges that they run into," explains Free Arts NYC's Chief Program Officer Kai Fierle-Hendrick to The Creators Project. She adds, "Clearly there are a lot of systemic issues kids and families in our programs face. They struggle with income inequality, housing inequality, and educational inequality. Though, there are changes that need to happen, we are working in the now, and if that's their reality we [want] them to develop those skills of social and emotional coping to work through the challenges in their lives."  

The official mission of Free Arts NYC is to “provide underserved children and families with a unique combination of educational arts and mentoring programs that help them to foster the self-confidence and resiliency needed to realize their fullest potential,” according to the organization’s website. Free Arts NYC delivers on their mission by partnering with local community organizations to provide what Fierle-Hendrick calls “cradle-to-college” arts programming. Beginning with their Parents and Children Together with Art (PACT) program, Free Arts NYC offers children as young as three years old, as well as their parents, the opportunity to use art to enhance visual literacy, fine motor, problem solving, and communication skills. The long-term Arts Mentoring Program provides youths, ages six through 13, with regular opportunities to engage in visual arts projects at local community centers. Free Arts NYC also offers Museum Day programs throughout the city and pop-up art festivals that allow young children to explore artmaking.

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