Brooklyn's Progress
June 2004

By Deroy Peraza

Art4Now, a new Brooklyn nonprofit aimed at bringing arts to students, will begin its first summer session July 5 in Ft. Greene.  Students grades K-12 will work with artists to create a project in dance, music, spoken word or the visual arts. A local artist and New York City area public school teacher will mentor the groups, who will also work together to create a central summer project based on a “city senses” theme.

“It's been shown that kids communicate better and are more interested in school when they're given the opportunity to explore and be creative,” said Art4Now Executive Director Wilson Alexander Aguilar.  “We want to give students the chance to develop an exciting view of the world, especially for those who might not otherwise have this kind of outlet.”
 
The program will run a month, and each session will be four hours long.  Participants will spend time learning basic skills in their chosen discipline, and will brainstorm on how to address the theme for a final exhibition. Each day, the entire group will meet to discuss how their individual works fit together for the final show. Students will develop and execute their own plans, but will be steered by the teachers, artists, directors, and volunteer community members.

A final exhibition will be held on July 30 and 31, and will showcase the collaboration among students as well as teachers, artists and the community.  Dancers will incorporate music into their final project, and spoken word artists will perform with sets and backdrops designed by the visual arts students.  Professional artists involved in the program will also showcase their work.

“It's very important for students to see how different forms of art work together,” Mr. Aguilar said.  Which is what he hopes Art4Now will accomplish.  “Art4Now does that. It exposes students to the idea of working as a community, and how that can lead to something larger than just one person.”

There is still time for interested students to sign up for the summer session.  Art4Now is also hoping to start an after school program during the 2005 school year, and taking this year’s pilot program to every borough next summer.

Art4Now’s curriculum is the brain-child of Jenna Shapiro, a Brooklyn grade school teacher whose students don't have art or music class. Understanding how important the arts are to a solid education, she gathered a group of area teachers and artists and has been working for a year to create the program.

City officials and community leaders are already taking notice of Art4Now and its mission.  “The collaboration between artists, educators and members of the Brooklyn community is noble, ambitious and smart,” says Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce President, Kenneth Adams.

“Kids have creative minds and creative souls,” Ms. Shapiro said. “We just have to give them the outlet to do it, to draw and paint and make something.”

For more information about Art4Now please visit http://www.art4now.org/.