Teen Programs offer diverse initiatives that connect teens to the best of NYC’s emerging and established arts-going venues, while providing space for artistic expression, leadership development, and experiential learning through the arts. Programming is designed as a complementary framework of opportunities in which roles and responsibilities can deepen over time, helping teens to develop the personal, social, and academic skills necessary to define and design their own professional pathways.
COMMITMENT TO ANTI-RACISM
DEAR TEEN PROGRAMS COMMUNITY,
ArtsConnection remains committed to speaking up and acting against long-standing acts of violence aimed at Black people in this country.
Admittedly, the recent racial tensions have made it difficult to figure out what to say to you, the young people with whom we work and value as part of our community, knowing many of you may be feeling anger, confusion, and hopelessness. There are multiple layers of grief to work through, and as an arts organization, we believe the arts are a way forward to healing, finding hope and possibility, and taking action.
As a team we have worked to establish the building blocks to educate ourselves and work from an anti-racist culturally sustaining lens, to dismantle the systems of white supremacy that affect so many people, especially young Black and brown people. We recognize we still have a long way to go to make that a sustained part of our internal operations and external programming, and we are investing in continuous training of current and future staff. While we have and will probably make mistakes, we are committed to self-examination, so that we can identify when our actions and programming perpetuate racist systems and work to disrupt that cycle.
Yours in Community,
Teen Programs Team
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