About Sing for Hope’s Art U! Youth Outreach Program

Sing for Hope’s Art U! program exposes under-resourced students to five distinct art forms (visual, written word, music, drama, and dance) and investigates how each of those artistic disciplines can be a catalyst for social change. Classes with resident Teaching Artists are complemented by visits with guest Volunteer Artists in an exploration of art’s power to transform lives and communities.

Our approach centers on inclusive exercises, collaborative performances, and art as a means to better our world. Our students’ work is informed by the study of American arts activists such as Marion Anderson and Pete Seeger, as well as international examples such as the “Singing Revolutions” of former Soviet bloc countries. Each Art U! residency culminates in the students’ creation of their own arts activist projects, which range from environmentalist beat poetry, to originally composed choral pieces on the theme of human freedom, to teleplays promoting recycling. The students’ final projects are presented to their schools and local communities – demonstrable examples of the students’ own arts activism in action and their ability to foster positive change in the world around them.

As our students share ideas and express themselves in collaboration with professional artists, they discover that creativity and discipline are not mutually exclusive. They learn that they can take steps each day to create positive change in their own lives and the world. To date, Art U! has brought the power of arts activism to over 5,000 students, community members, teachers, and parents, most of whom would have minimal access to artistic or leadership education without Sing for Hope.

If you are a Volunteer Artist interested in giving your time to Sing for Hope, please click here.

If you are interested in making a contribution to support this program, please click here.

Our Current Campuses & Demographics

During the 2010-2011 school year, Art U! served the following after-school programs and public schools.

Our public school campuses:

P.S. 34 Franklin Delano Roosevelt School (Manhattan, NY)

Students demographics: 98% minority, 77% classified as living in poverty*

P.S. 18 Edward Bush Magnet School for Leadership (Brooklyn, NY)

Student demographics: 98% minority, 82% classified as living in poverty*

Academy for Urban Planning (Brooklyn, NY)

Student demographics: 98% minority, 74.4% classified as living in poverty*

Bushwick School for Social Justice (Brooklyn, NY)

Student demographics: 99% minority, 85.7% classified as living in poverty*

Cypress Hills Collegiate Preparatory School (Brooklyn, NY)

Student demographics: 96% minority, 73.2% classified as living in poverty*

Frank McCourt High School (Manhattan, NY)

Student Demographics: 59% minority, 60% classified as living in poverty*

Hillside Arts and Letters Academy (Queens, NY)

Student Demographics: 91.4% minority, 60% classified as living in poverty*

Mott Haven Academy (Bronx, NY)

Student demographics: 93% minority, 86% classified as living in poverty*

Our after-school programs:

New York City Housing Authority Youth Chorus (Manhattan, NY)

Young at Arts (Bronx and Southern Westchester, NY)

Student demographics: 95% minority, 60% classified as living in poverty, 70% living in single parent homes**

TOTAL Art U! Student demographic averages:

93% minority, 79% classified as living in poverty

* Source: CEP School and Demographics Accountability Snapshot 2008-2009

** Source: Young at Arts

Art U! is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York State’s 62 counties.