SCO Awarded $15,000 from National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Grants for Arts Projects

SCO Family of Services has received $15,000 in funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Grants for Arts Projects, Arts Education program. This funding supports teaching artists associated with Arts Forward, a year-round multidisciplinary arts education program created and run in partnership with Brooklyn-based arts education nonprofit Hook Arts Media (HAM.) HAM’s arts curriculum uses multidisciplinary arts instruction to engage NYC high school students from underserved communities in their schoolwork, their communities, and in the political and social issues that shape their lives. (Photo: Justus Snyder)

In 2021-22, the program will serve 300 students at 4 public high schools (“transfer schools”) in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, including SCO’s three transfer high schools, East Brooklyn Community High School, North Queens Community High School, and Bronx Arena High School. Transfer schools serve some of NYC’s most at-risk teens, overage and under-credited students who are not on track to graduate.

The program will include both in-school and after-school components and will implement a rigorous and progressive arts curriculum that melds skill-building in the performing and media arts within discipline-specific arts classes. Workshops will be taught by skilled teaching artists and will culminate in public performances and presentations of student work.

In-School: Arts-rich, student-centered, in-school programs led by HAM teaching artists exposing students to digital media, hip hop poetry, and other disciplines. Small class sizes will allow hands-on experience.

Out-of-School: A 4-week summer Digital Boot Camp drawn from the school-year transfer school programs to develop skills in digital media at increasingly advanced levels.

If COVID-19 restrictions are in place in 2021-22, programming will be offered virtually.