New Urban Arts

New Urban Arts is a nonprofit arts organization that provides after school arts mentoring and studio space for high school students and emerging artists in Providence, Rhode Island. In 2017, students at New Urban Arts came primarily from four Providence schools: Classical High School, Central High School, the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center (the Met), and Providence Career and Technical Academy (PCTA).[1] The organization focuses on helping students develop a life-long creative practice, a summer arts inquiry program, and a leadership program that allows student participants to drive the direction of the organization.[2] Each year, New Urban Arts serves 700 high school students, 25 emerging artists, and 2,000 visitors to the studio.[3]

Front of New Urban Arts

History

Originally called "Project New Urban Arts," the organization was founded in October 1997 by four college students (Jullia Kim, Malaika Thorne, Marcus Civin, and Tyler Denmead) and ten high school students from Brown University, the Rhode Island School of Design, Central High School, Mount Pleasant High School, and Hope High School.[4] In 1998, Tyler Denmead was awarded a prestigious Echoing Green Fellowship to launch New Urban Arts as a nonprofit, and he became the first executive director.[5]

New Urban Arts began in a loft above Grace Church in downtown Providence, Rhode Island and then moved to 743 Westminster Street in Providence in 1998. In 2011, New Urban Arts announced a capital campaign and purchased, renovated, and moved to its current space at 705 Westminster Street. In 2016, with support from the Rhode Island State Council for the Arts, New Urban Arts renovated 705 Westminster Street, adding space and accessibility for a total of 6,000 square feet.[6]

People

Notable alumni, staff, and former staff members of New Urban Arts include:

Executive Directors:

Programs

Central to New Urban Arts is the Youth Mentorship in the Arts program, which pairs adult artists with small groups of students for after school art making.[2] Artist mentors include both volunteers and staff, known as resident artist mentors. New Urban Arts supports volunteer artist mentors through a Professional Development Program and the students through leadership programs (the Studio Team Advisory Board), postsecondary advising, and tutoring. Summer programs include paid internships, arts inquiry explorations, an Untitlement program that explores identities, and open studio time.[17] In 2017, New Urban Arts and Central High School began a collaboration called NUA Knights, which includes arts programming at the school. During the COVID-19 pandemic, New Urban Arts arranged for the delivery of arts supplies to students and mentors.[18]

Awards

In 2009, New Urban Arts received a Coming Up Taller Award presented by Michelle Obama at the White House.[19] These awards "recognize exemplary arts and humanities programs which foster young people's intellectual and creative development."[20]

Another national award came in 2008 (followed by renewals in 2013 and 2018) when the Rhode Island Department of Education named New Urban Arts a 21st Century Community Learning Center.[21]

The Initiative for Nonprofit Excellence of the Rhode Island Foundation and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island awarded New Urban Arts a Best Practices Award in Board Governance in 2013.[22]

Emily Ustach, Deputy Director, was named a National Institute on Out-of-School Time Fellow for 2017–2019.[23]

Influential Ideas

The ideas and practices developed in New Urban Arts over more than twenty years have been very influential. In a recent book, The Creative Underclass: Youth, Race and the Gentrifying City, founding director Tyler Denmead provides an ethnography of New Urban Arts in the beginning of the twentieth century and ties student expectations to local and national public policy initiatives.[24]  Susan Smulyan, a Brown University professor and former Board Chair at New Urban Arts, writes about the organization and what it can teach the new academic field of public humanities in an essay in an anthology, Doing Public Humanities.[25] Staff and mentors have written hands-on essays, most recently Deputy Director Emily Ustach who describes “Flexibility and Fidelity in a Drop-In, After School Art Studio Program” in Afterschool Matters.[26]

References
  1. Grosvenor, Amanda (June 2017). "Electric Youth: New Urban Arts celebrates 20 years of artistic education for city teens". Providence Monthly: 57 – via Issuu.
  2. Hocking, Peter (2011). "I Wish I Had a Place Like This When I Was Growing Up: New Urban Arts and the Cultivation of Creative Practice". The Radical Teacher (89): 47–56. doi:10.5406/radicalteacher.89.0047. JSTOR 10.5406/radicalteacher.89.0047.
  3. "Impact". New Urban Arts. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  4. Pina, Alisha A. (December 31, 1997). "First Night draws teen artists *Works by high school students in Project: New Urban Arts will be exhibited for the first time tonight". Providence Journal. p. C-01.
  5. "Tyler Denmead". Echoing Green Fellows Directory. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  6. Arvanitis, John (2016-10-10). "New Urban Arts: Bigger and Better". Take Magazine. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  7. Denmead, Tyler, 1976- (8 November 2019). The creative underclass : youth, race, and the gentrifying city. Durham. ISBN 978-1-4780-0659-6. OCLC 1083466366.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. "College of Fine Arts Welcomes Marcus Civin as Chair of Art". University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Retrieved 2020-02-04.
  9. "RISD Museum Announces 2019 Artist Fellow: Dana Heng | RISD Museum". risdmuseum.org. Retrieved 2020-02-04.
  10. "Tom Van Buskirk, Resident Artist Mentor". New Urban Arts. Retrieved 2020-02-04.
  11. "The 2011 Art Party". New Urban Arts. 2011-05-20. Retrieved 2020-02-04.
  12. Grossman, David (2015-12-11). "Downtown Boys: Meet America's Most Exciting Punk Band". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  13. "Kaplan to Collect 2013 Alumni Award". www.risd.edu. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  14. Minkin, Tracey. "New Urban Arts' Jason Yoon: 12 Who Made a Difference in RI in 2012". GoLocalProv. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  15. "AfterSchool Today Winter 2014 Page 13". www.mydigipub.com. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  16. Daddona, Patricia (2015-02-06). "Five Questions With: Daniel Schleifer". Providence Business News. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  17. "What We Do". New Urban Arts. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  18. Shuman, Cassius (2020-04-24). "Fostering students' creative outlet during COVID-19 pandemic". Providence Business News. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  19. Borg, Linda (November 5, 2009). "Arts studio for Providence high school students receives national award" (PDF). The Providence Journal.
  20. "Coming Up Taller Awards". www.cominguptaller.org. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  21. "RIDE Awards $2.6M for 21st Century Community Learning Centers". www.ride.ri.gov. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  22. "Best Practice Awardees". RI Foundation. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  23. Tambascio, Donna. "National Institute on Out-of-School Time | National Afterschool Matters 2017-2019 Fellowship Begins | Afterschool Matters News | NIOST News | Home Page Items". www.niost.org. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  24. "The Creative Underclass: Youth, Race, and the Gentrifying City". Duke University Press.
  25. "Doing Public Humanities". Routledge & CRC Press. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  26. Conley, Elyssa. "Afterschool Matters | Flexibility and Fidelity in a Drop-in, Open-Door Art Studio Program | Afterschool Matters Summer 2020". niost.org. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
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