Rhode Island Public Radio features coverage on New Urban Arts’ 20th Anniversary.
RHODE ISLAND PUBLIC RADIO | April 21, 2017
The Providence-based arts nonprofit New Urban Arts celebrates its 20th anniversary this weekend. The organization is a community art studio which provides free fine arts and music instruction to Providence students.
Executive director Dan Schleifer said since its founding in 1997, some 3,000 city students have taken part in the organization. He said some of those students have gone on to careers in the arts.
“But actually the majority of our students aren’t necessarily going on to the arts,” Schleifer. “What we think they’re getting is the benefits of arts education that we don’t think they’re getting in our schools.”
Schleifer said program provides arts education which, he says is diminishing in schools.
“We also have an impact on the life of the city itself, in terms of inviting young people into the cultural life of the city itself,” said Schleifer. “Those young people become part of the art and music scenes in Providence.”
The program will be celebrated with a panel discussion on arts education and New Urban Arts at Brown University this weekend.