52nd Street Project
New York City organization dedicated to matching the inner-city children of Hell's Kitchen with professional theater artists to create original theater.

A Living Library
Environmental/educational project founded by artist Bonnie Ora Sherk in San Francisco, Calif., in 1981 at The Farm. Community-created gardens and Think Parks transform "sunken meadows and brownfields, urban sprawl and desolation, public parks and plazas, concrete and asphalt schoolyards, civic centers or undeveloped wastelands into vibrant and relevant community learning environments and highly visible public magnets offering innovative and practical community and economic development." Branches in Sand Francisco and New York City. Goal is to develop and link Branch Living Libraries in different communities of the world using state-of-the-art communications technologies.

Above Ground: Information on Artists III: Special Focus New York City Aging Artists
First needs assessment of aging artists in New York City, researching how artists are supported and integrated within their communities and how their network structures change over time. Finds that they rank high in life satisfaction and self-esteem; 91% would choose to be artists again; 77% communicate daily or weekly with other artists; they're resilient and have an ongoing engagement with both their life and art. Written, published by Research Center for Arts and Culture at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Actors Theatre Workshop
Volunteer N.Y. theater organization with programs addressing cultural challenges of childhood poverty and inclusive community building. Founded by Thurman E. Scott.

Adams Avenue
Rich arts site celebrating community revitalization in a San Diego, Calif., neighborhood.

AfroReggae
Cultural group (break-dance, capoeira, circus and 11-piece band) established in the favela (shantytown) of Vigário Geral, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1993. They aim "to take young people out of the drug trade through arts-based activities," working in the poorest, most violent communities in Rio. Insight programme: community-based mixed-arts workshops, debates and trainings.

Arlington Arts Incubator
Award-winning county arts program in Arlington, Va., providing what artists and arts organizations need by "reimagining an assortment of untapped government resources such as underused public-and private-sector space."

Armory Center for the Arts
Community arts center in Pasadena, Calif., with prodigious gallery, studio, community, education and public art programs. Site includes "Neighborhood Art Projects" map/guide to public art throughout the Pasadena area created by participants in Armory programs. Began as the education department of the legendary Pasadena Art Museum; now located in renovated National Guard Armory and ancillary sites in Old Pasadena.

Arroyo Arts Collective
Grassroots arts group in Northeast Los Angeles, Calif., offering "Poetry in the Windows" along Figueroa Avenue in Highland Park, "Without Alarm: Public and Private Security" exhibit of installation in the former Los Angeles City Jail, and annual tour of local studios.

Art Sanctuary
Invites established and aspiring black artists to North Philadelphia, Pa., to give lectures, performances and educational programs.

Art Share Los Angeles
Community arts incubator whose mission is "to shape lives through art, education and community action." Free art classes, 99-seat dance studio and theater, the Warehouse Art Gallery, a computer lab, art studio, classroom spaces and 30 residential lofts for low-income artists. Programs: BLAST (Building Language and Art Skills Together), Community Beautification Program.

Art Start
Artist-run programs for New York City for homeless and at-risk kids. Arts in the Shelters, Media Works Project, Hip Hop Project and Mentoring Program.

Art for Change
Based in El Barrio of East Harlem, Art for Change engages individuals and communities in the production of art programs and performances "creating a forum for information exchange while inspiring reflection, discussion and action, resulting in social change."

Art in Action Youth Leadership Program
Small multiracial collective founded 2000 by artists and youth advocates based in Oakland, Calif., working with young artists impacted by violence and poverty "to cultivate leadership through dance, theater, music, spoken word/poetry, painting, storytelling, and media arts." Based in popular and political education. Annual Leadership Training: 5-10 day summer camp open to ages 17-25. Programs: Dig This Story! Digital Storytelling; “Turf Unity” Music Program; Performances and Workshops; participation in the Silence the Violence Collaboration; online artwork.

Art on Purpose
Community art organization in Baltimore, Md., that provides art workshops, exhibitions, programs in support of education, social justice and community service. "Real City, Dream City" project involving ten Baltimore city neighborhoods. Founded 2005 by artist/educator/curator Peter Bruun.

ArtSpan
ArtSpan produces San Francisco Open Studios and Inner City Public Art Projects for Youth, publishes A Free Guide to San Francisco Open Studios, and organizes workshops to help artists with professional development.

ArtWORKS!
Year-round after-school, summer programs for high-school teens from neighborhoods with high drop-out rates. Arts retail job training in design, manufacture and marketing of painted furniture and tiles. program of Tucson/Pima Arts Council, Tucson, Ariz.

Artists for Humanity
Boston, Mass.-based organization using art and creative process to link young people with business; job training and school-to-work programs; commercial services and exhibitions for student work; graphics, photography, silkscreen, sculpture and painting studios.

Arts & Equity Initiative
Participatory arts project for city employees in Portland, Maine. Arts workshops for workers in the city's Public Works, Health & Human Services, Police Department and more. Prints, poems, collages and photographs now hang in a new City Hall gallery, in the mechanics garage, landfill, healthcare facility, general assistance offices and police roll callroom. Products include annual Police Poetry Calendars; "Work," essays, stories and poems by City Writers Group, all city employees; and "home land security," a community performance. Founded 2007. Directed by artist Marty Pottenger.

Arts & Spirituality Center
Nonsectarian organization in Philadelphia, Pa., founded by a group of artists and spiritual leaders to focus on social and personal healing through interplay of artistic and spiritual expression. Arts After School program, MasterPeace program, Interfaith Youth Poetry Project, Drums for Peace music program and Teens United Performing Arts Project. Has worked with private, charter and public schools, after-school programs, serving primarily low-income, “at-risk” youth. Founded 2000.

Arts and Culture in Regeneration
International review of literature on the impact of art and culture on the regeneration of neighborhoods and cities, focusing on: iconic buildings and cities of culture; cultural quarters and clusters; and cultural dynamism. Includes "outstanding questions" about the process, sustainability and assessment of such interventions, and a list of resources on the topic. Commissioned for the third World Summit on Arts and Culture, held in NewcastleGateshead, England, in June 2006. Written by Phyllida Shaw and Graeme Evans; published by IFACCA and Arts Research Digest.

Arts and Culture in the Metropolis: Strategies for Sustainability
Monograph recommending that arts sectors in big cities create a strong local agency to coordinate cultural activities and help make arts an integral part of each community. Recommends that civic leaders make cultural institutions a vital component of community economic development and neighborhood revitalization strategies. Based on study of 11 big U.S. cities. Written by Kevin F. McCarthy, Elizabeth Heneghan Ondaatje, Jennifer L. Novak; published by RAND Corporation, 2007.

Arts at University Settlement
Programs for immigrants and low-income people at America's first social settlement, founded in 1886 on New York's Lower East Side.

Arts in Focus
Los Angeles, Calif., countywide arts-education survey.

Attic Theatre Company
London-based company with contemporary/classic repertoire and outreach programs: Project R, workshops for refugees and asylum seekers (with Company of Angels); plays for senior citizens on Crime Reduction and Home Safety (with Metropolitan Police and Fire Brigade); Young People's Company, 11-14 year-olds in devised-drama workshops.

Bay Area Center for Independent Culture (BACIC)
Nonprofit organization in San Francisco, Calif., dedicated to promoting human development through the use of an innovative performance and development based model. Creating outside-of-school educational and performing-arts activities for young people living in the Bay Area's poorest communities. Community and experimental theater, leadership training, volunteer initiatives that build and strengthen communities. Programs: All Stars Talent Show Network and Developing Community Theatre. Founded 2002.

Black Rock Art Foundation
Nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, Calif., promoting and supporting community-based interactive art. Programs: artist grants, community development, exhibitions, educational outreach, career development. Founded 2001 by individuals who direct Burning Man; incorporated in Nevada.

Black Web Portal
Database of black Web sites, black businesses, freelance feeds, black events, black politicians and colleges and more. Has news wire, newsletter, business corner, arts and humanities. Black owned and operated.

Brooklyn College Art Lab
Arts and technology after-school site in Brooklyn, N.Y., serving some 700 students a year from some 30 high schools, averaging 80-100 students per day. Central node for The Arts Network at Brooklyn College Community Partnership, a creative learning network linking the college to the communities of Brooklyn; programs in seven Brooklyn high schools.

CASES
The Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services, New York City. Works with justice system to offer structured alternatives more substantial than probation, but less costly and intrusive than jail or prison. Projects: Art Therapy; Court Employment Project; Community Service Sentencing Project; Nathaniel Project for offenders with mental illness; Parole Restoration Project for parole violators with special needs; Girls Program; Community Prep High School; more.

CELLspace
Volunteer-staffed collaborative art center fostering community in San Francisco's Mission District through art and education, with classes and communal workspaces.

COSACOSA
Philadelphia-based organization engaging children and adults in art workshops around common neighborhood issues. Artist commissions, Healing Art Project, ArtSight e-gallery.

Caldera
Nonprofit arts-education organization with a mission to foster creativity among underserved youth and adults, "believing that the arts and the out-of-doors are powerful vehicles for fostering creativity and a strong sense of self-worth." Programs take place in schools and community centers throughout Portland and Central Oregon, and at Caldera’s Blue Lake facility in the Oregon Cascades. Programs: arts partnerships, artist school residencies, summer arts retreats, apprenticeships, retreats for professional artists and writers.

California Wash
Environmental artwork by Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison encompassing a city block at an environmentally degraded state beach in Santa Monica, Calif.

Caribbean Cultural Center/Africa Diaspora Institute
New York center founded in 1976 to document and promote cultural history of people of African descent globally, "from Brooklyn to Bahia, from Haiti to Harlem." Works in all media, conferences, workshops, lectures, gallery talks.

Center for Art and Public Life
Center at California College of Arts and Crafts with Arts Education Partnerships, a mentoring/teaching program for CCAC students working in Oakland, California's public schools.

Center for Arts Education (N.Y.C.)
Foremost arts-education organization in New York. Administers Annenberg Challenge for Arts Education. Grant program and projects in all five city boroughs. Good source of links and info on all arts-ed activities in New York.

Center for Community Innovation
Coalition of faculty, staff, and students in the U.C. Berkeley Institute of Urban and Regional development working in the San Francisco Bay Area’s low-income commercial corridors. Focuses on housing, community and economic development in four topic areas: revitalizing neighborhoods, developing economic resilience, designing and programming for the public realm, and producing and preserving affordable housing. Collaborates with local officials and national experts to develop scenarios for mixed-income communities. Launched 2006. A Cross-Sector Resource.

Center for Cultural Exchange
Major presenter in Portland, Maine, with ongoing partnerships with Southern Maine's French Canadian, Cambodian, Irish, African-American, African, Greek, Latino, Italian, Jewish, Middle-Eastern and South Asian communities.

Center for Urban Pedagogy
Based in Brooklyn, N.Y., CUP makes "educational projects about places and how they change." Bringing art and design professionals together with community-based advocates and researchers to create projects ranging from high-school curricula to educational exhibitions.

Centre of Expertise on Culture and Communities
Cultural research and development center at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Brings together academia, policy and practice in: (1) The state of cultural infrastructure in Canadian cities and communities; (2) Culture as the fourth pillar of community sustainability; (3) Culture in communities: Cultural systems and local planning; and (4) The impacts of cultural infrastructure and activity in cities and communities. Roundtables, salons, conferences. Publications, bibliographies, research directories, listservs.

CharretteCenter
Town design and information services for community-based urban design. Develops site plans and 3-D visualizations for new towns, suburban/urban redevelopments and infill districts. Free online compendium of information on "new urbanism" design process. Based in Mineapolis, Minn. A Cross-Sector Resource.

Chesapeake Center for Youth Development
Training center for disadvantaged youth in Baltimore, Md., with strong arts program. Chesapeake Alternative School serving youth referred by Dept. of Juvenile Services and other governmental agencies; after-school programs; job training, internships; social-work services, counseling.

Children's Coalition Inc.
Multimedia arts center for inner-city, at-risk, first-time and repeat offender youth in Palm Beach, Fla.

Chinatown Banquet, A
Interdiscipinary art and education project exploring forces that shaped and influence Boston's Chinatown.

Church of Craft
Groups meeting in New York and San Francisco in "a place that allows people to make things without thinking about either utility or artistic value."

City Lore
Artists, folklorists, historians, anthropologists, and ethnomusicologists fostering New York's cultural heritage. Exhibits, books, magazine, media events.

City Repair Project
Volunteer grassroots organization in Portland, Ore., that helps people "reclaim their urban spaces to create community-oriented places."

City Stage Co. of Boston
Programs for urban children, youth and families in the performing arts: traveling theater company; arts education; interactive exhibits and programs for museums nationwide.

City Studio
Community-education program of San Francisco Art Institute launched 2005 in partnership with neighborhood youth-development organizations, school districts and leading artists. Designed to engage high-school juniors and seniors in a rigorous two-year arts-education experience.

Class Acts Arts Inc.
Arts outreach and presenting organization bringing performances, workshops and artist residencies to schools and communities, at-risk youth, seniors and special needs populations in Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia. Project Youth ArtReach: visual, literary and performing arts programs and residencies to youth in Washington, D.C., area juvenile correctional settings, alternative schools and a statewide mentoring program for court-involved youth.

Cloud Foundation
Boston, Mass., organization providing artistic creation and cross-cultural communication programs for urban youth. Programs: Cloud Place youth arts center in downtown Boston, Teen Curatorial Program, traveling workshops, partnerships and collaborative programming.

Columbia College Chicago Office of Community Arts Partnerships
Facilitates reciprocal partnership-building between college and its communities, including collaboration between academic departments and community arts (mainly youth) programs; student placement; mentoring for middle/high schools.

Community MusicWorks
Providence, R.I.-based home of the Providence String Quartet with free after-school education and performance programs that "build meaningful long-term relationships between professional musicians, children and families in the West End and South Side neighborhoods of the city. Instrument lessons with free instruments, musical workshops, performance parties, youth salons, family concert trips, "Phase II" teen program, fellowship program and seminars. Concerts feature work by local composers. Founded 1997 by Sebastian Ruth with start-up funding from Swearer Center for Public Service at Brown University.

Congress for New Urbanism
Urban-design movement that aims to reform all aspects of real-estate development. Neighborhood planning, design, policy; regional planning for open space, appropriate architecture, balanced development of jobs and housing. Site has CNU member search. A Cross-Sector Resource.

ConjunctionArts Inc.
Public-art organization by artists Bradley McCallum and Jacqueline Terry strengthening citical discourse and practice of civic-based work. Includes documentation of "Witness: Perspectives on Police Violence" and other works. Includes Public Edge Speakers Bureau.

Creative City Network of Canada
Network of people employed by municipalities across Canada working on arts, culture and heritage policy, planning, development and support. Annual conference, Web resources, free e-newsletter, listservs, city profiles. In English and French.

Creative Communities Initiative Summary Report
Report summarizes strategies for successful arts education partnerships with public housing communities. Findings gleaned from 2001-4, $4.65 million partnership among NEA, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts. Initiative provided arts funding to 20 community schools to support high-quality, sequential arts instruction to 7,000 children and youth living in public housing communities. This report outlines the program, its sustainability, strategies, and special considerations. Many ofindings relevant to a wide range of cross-sector arts education partnerships. Downloadable free on Web. (National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts, 2006).

Critical Breakdown
Hip-hop activist program committed to engaging young people in social change. Based in Boston, Mass., and supported by American Friends Service Committee. Monthly open mics, conferences, participation in rallies, protests and marches

Culture Builds Community
Project evaluation of Culture Builds Communities in Philadelphia, a Pennsylvania grant program that funded small arts organizations and artists involved in neighborhood revitalization. Study used financial indicators, class registration statistics, population changes and long-term maintenance of relationships to evaluate success of the program. Findings: 1) strengthening cultural sector has net positive results in community; (2) sustaining a cultural sector depends on recognizing and supporting networks of key actors, including community-based artists, for-profit cultural firms, informal cultural organizations, and related nonarts organizations. By Susan Seifert and Mark Stern (Social Impact of the Arts Project, School of Social Work, University of Pennsylvania, 2002).

El Museo del Barrio
Founded 30 years ago by Puerto Rican educators, artists, social and political activists leaders of East Harlem's El Barrio in New York to preserve and reflect their cultural heritage. Exhibitions, collections, education programs, shop.

El Puente
Community human-rights institution in north Brooklyn. N.Y., that promotes "leadership for peace and justice through the engagement of members (youth and adult) in the arts, education, scientific research, wellness and environmental action." ,Programs: Center for Arts and Culture, Community Health and Environment Institute, three neighborhood Leadership Centers, El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice (high school).

FLUX Art Space
Presents and exhibits digital art works and interdisciplinary projects by established and emerging artists, "providing an artistic forum for underprivileged and underexposed sections of multicultural communities in New York City."

Fairmount Park Art Association
"First private, nonprofit organization dedicated to integrating public art and urban planning" in U.S.; based in Philadelphia. Pa.

Feria Urbana
Urban fair celebrating indie artists and designers in San Francisco, Calif.

First Exposures: Youth Opportunities through Photography (FX)
S.F. Camerawork mentoring program for students ages 11 - 18 are recruited from local agencies serving young people with backgrounds of foster care, homelessness or low-income living situations. Online gallery, public billboard project, Photo Safari field trips, cultural exchange with youth in Ghana. Initiated at Eye Gallery in 1993, developed by S.F. Camerawork 1996.

FreeStreet
Focuses on Chicago's marginalized young people, using the performing arts. TeenStreet Theater employs teens to create boundary-breaking theater; Arts Connect trains medical students to provide arts relief for chronically ill children.

Friends of the Los Angeles River
Organization working to restore L.A.'s urban river to natural state, cofounded by poet Lewis MacAdams.

Galeria de la Raza
San Francisco, Calif., interdisciplinary Chicano/Latino �space for Art, Thought and Activism."

Great Leap
Performing-arts organization dedicated to principles of deepening race relations and promoting harmony between diverse cultural groups. School, youth programs. Rooted in Asian-American community of Los Angeles, Calif. Directed by Nobuko Miyamoto.

Groundswell Community Mural Project
Nonprofit based in Brooklyn, N.Y., that brings together professional artists, grassroots organizations and communities to create high-quality murals in under-represented neighborhoods. Since 1996, has worked with over 900 community members — including low-income teens, undocumented immigrants, people living with AIDS and multiracial neighborhood associations — to complete over 50 collaboratively designed and painted murals in their neighborhoods.

Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center
San Antonio, Tex.,-based organization promoting arts and culture of Chicano/Latino/Native American peoples, "the largest institution of its kind in the U.S." Dance, literature, media arts, theater arts, visual arts and Xicano music programs.

Harlem Stage
New York organization that supports creation and development of new works by performing artists of color. Forum for culturally diverse artists, community-based performing arts organizations and regionally significant arts groups. Performances for Harlem residents at affordable prices. Education programs: family workshops, performance study guides, Harlem Stage in the Schools.

HartBeat Ensemble
"Theater for active change" in Hartford, Conn., founded by former members of San Francisco Mime Troupe. Mainstage plays, street theater, plays in Hartford city parks, educational workshops for children and aduts in using theater for social change with Boal techniques. Partnerships with Two Way Youth Employment Program in Hartford’s North End and the Amistad Youth Project in Hartford's South End.

Heidelberg Project
Outdoor urban art environment in Detroit, Mich. Neighborhood residents and stakeholders come together through art-based activities and programs to rebuild structure and fabric of their under-resourced community, creating a way of living that is economically viable and inclusive. Founded 1986 by artist/activist Tyree Guyton.

Here Is New York
Subtitled "A Democracy of Photographs," gallery exhibition and book of photos from 9/11, collected in an open call. Sales proceeds to Children's Aid Society.

High Line District
1.5-mile-long (22 blocks) historic elevated rail structure on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City being converted to public open space linking South Hell's Kitchen/Hudson Yards, West Chelsea and the Gansevoort Market Historic District.

Hospital Audiences
Provides arts programs to New Yorkers who "are isolated from the cultural mainstream," including people in hospitals, shelters, prisons, etc. Exhibitions of art by self-taught artists with mental disabilties. Cultural events, workshops, prevention education, youth leadership, advocacy, schools programs. Founded 1969 by Michael Jon Spencer.

Inner-City Arts
Visual and performing arts program on downtown Los Angeles, California's Skid Row for children from 32 local elementary schools and two middle schools. Hands-on activities in visual arts, dance, drama, animation, music and ceramics. Annenberg Professional Development program includes Creativity in the Classroom Series, Visiting Scholar and Artist Series and year-long Teachers Institute. Founded 1989 by Bob Bates in response to funding cuts that eliminated arts instruction from L.A. public schools.

Inside Out Community Arts
Award-winning youth arts organization in Venice, Calif. After-school theater program, Neighborhood Arts Project for middle-schoolers from rival gang areas, The School Project , programs at Metropolitan State Hospital for youth hospitalized with severe mental and emotional problems, artist & teacher training, festivals.

Intermedia Arts
Advanced contemporary arts organization with deep community investment in Minneapolis, Minn. Partnership-building workshops, intergenerational programs, outstanding neighborhood and city projects.

Jeroen van Westen
Dutch eco-artist working on aesthetic problems of urban landscape.

Journal of Ordinary Thought
Journal of Neighborhood Writing Alliance, publishing writing from workshops with people from low- and no-income neighborhoods in Chicago, Ill.

Juan Antonio Corretjer Puerto Rican Cultural Center
Nonprofit, community-based umbrella institution founded 1973 by community activists to serve social/cultural needs of Chicago's Puerto Rican/Latino community. Umbrellas Family Learning Center, Consuelo Lee Corretjer Childcare Center, Vida/SIDA HIV and AIDS education and prevention programs; La Casita de Don Pedro community garden and cultural space; Café Batey Urbano cultural space for the youth. Organizes annual Puerto Rican Peoples Parade,co-sponsors Fiesta Boricua annual Puerto Rican music festival. PRCC is the parent organization and provides a space to the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School.

Kids on the Hill
"Art Action for Neighborhood Change." Community-based program in the Reservoir Hill neighborhood of Baltimore, Md., with programs in arts, academics, entrepreneurship and mentoring. Projects: murals, sculpture garden, photos on city buses, video projects, Kids on the Hill Shop, newsletter. Founded by artist Rebecca Yenawine.

La Pena Cultural Center
Community arts and cultural education center in Berkeley, Calif., founded 1975 by Latinos and North Americans to instill political consciousness through culture and the arts. Events, classes, school programs, restaurant.

Lake Street USA
600 photographs of people who live along a six-mile stretch of Lake Street in Minneapolis, Minn., taken by Wing Young Huie, and exhibited along Lake Street in store fronts, bus stops, other public places.

Leeway Foundation
Supports women artists, arts programs and arts organization, focusing on Greater Philadelphia, Pa.

Los Angeles Bus Riders Union
"One of the largest mass-transit, anti-racist organizations it the U.S." fighting for a "first-class, clean-fuel, bus-centered public transportation system in Los Angeles." Uses "teatro" (theater) for organizing.

Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD)
First performance ensemble in U.S. made up principally of homeless people. Artwork "connects lived experience to the social forces that shape the lives and communities of people living in poverty. LAPD is dedicated to building community on Skid Row, Los Angeles." Directed by John Malpede.

Los Angeles Urban Rangers
A "mobile and site-specific interpretive force" of artists, art historians, geographers, environmental and art historians, artists, curators, architects facilitating "creative, critical, head-on, oblique, and crisscrossed investigations into our sprawling metropolis and its various ecologies." Web site has We Are Here Maps Archive and Experimental Geography exhibition. Based in Los Angeles, Calif.

Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center
Cultural organization in San Pablo, Calif. (San Francisco East Bay Area) training youth in traditional arts. School for the Arts, community events, cultural exchange, mentorship, touring group, community recording studio.

Lower East Side Tenement Museum
Restored National Historic Site in New York City, home to est. 7,000 people from over 20 nations1863-1935. Tours, programs, stories, newsletter.

Make the Road by Walking
Community organizing group in Brooklyn, N.Y., primarily low-income Latino and African-American residents of Bushwick and surrounding neighborhoods. Collaborates with artists.

Many Versions of Masculine: An Exploration of Boys’Identity Formation through Digital Storytelling in an Afterschool Program
Qualitative research that features case studies of nine urban boys of color, aged nine to 11, who participated in an after-school program where they learned to create digital multimedia texts. Argues for recognition of and support for the different functions such programs can serve when structured as alternative spaces for learning and identity formation. Written by Glynda A. Hull, Nora L. Kenney, Stacy Marple, & Ali Forsman-Schneider; published by Robert Bowne Foundation in Afterschool Matters, 2006. (PDF)

Marwen
Visual arts courses, public on-site and traveling exhibitions, college and career workshops and individual counseling sessions, and work experiences for 2,200 inner-city youth in grades 6-12 annually. Based in Chicago, Ill.

Mass Transit Street Theater & Video
Based in Bronx, New York. Documentary video on Northwest Bronx Neighborhood Coalition: "Passin' It On: 25 Years of Oraganizing the Northwest Bronx." Theater explores loss of community, home and homelessness, value of diversity.

Medicine Wheel
Michael Dowling's Boston-based community service project involving hundreds of participants and collaborations with artists, neighborhood groups and community and arts organizations. Includes Medicine Wheel Youth Group, an arts employment program for teens; annual Medicine Wheel installation and vigil; No Man's Land, a reclamation, through gardens, sculpture and pathways, of an abandoned weed lot behind South Boston High School.

Medina Collective
Hip-hop/urban culture/journalism/mentorship program for young women of colour ages 16-24. Magazine with contributions from program participants. Founded by Tonika Morgan, based in Tornto, Ont., Canada.

Mexican Fine Arts Museum
In Chicago's Pilsen/Little Village community, "the largest Mexican community in the Midwest," dedicated to Mexican culture as manifested inside and outside Mexico. Exhibitions, collections, radio station and youth museum.

Mierle Laderman Ukeles
Artist in residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation since 1977 and Percent-for-Art artist for the Fresh Kills lifescape on Staten Island.

Mission Voices
Media literacy program in San Francisco's low-income Mission District by Worldstudio Foundation, Southern Exposure and Horizons Unlimited. Participants studied how media portrays local minority community and propagates stereotypes. Includes poster project.

Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit
Performing-arts training program designed to achieve "youth development through the arts." Theatrical and musical performances by National Touring Company; Next Stage Company creates and performs original pieces through local commissions; Mosaic Acting Company; Mosaic Singers. Education Department, classes (English and Spanish), school and summer programs. Many local and national partners.

Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana (MACLA)
Contemporary arts space in William/Reed Corridor of San Jose, California, founded in 1989 by community activists to change representation of multicultural artists within the city's art allocations. Exhibitions, performance, youth arts education.

Mural Arts Program
Painted more than 2,300 murals throughout Philadelphia, Pa., since 1984. Workshops for young people teach mural and leadership skills. Program of the City of Philadelphia, Pa.

Music Kitchen
Nonprofit organization bringing professional classical musicians together to share music with New York City’s disenfranchised homeless shelter population. Founded and directed by violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins.

NYFA Source
National database of awards, services, and publications for artists of all disciplines. By New York Foundation for the Arts

Nana Projects
Company of lanterneers and "visual alchemists" creating public spectacles. Best known for an annual Baltimore community event, The Great Halloween Lantern Parade. Offers Parade School training program for artists, community organizers and college students interested in the artistry of community-based parades. Directed by Molly Ross; originally founded in Minneapolis as Theater Nana in 1992.

New Land Marks
Sixteen Philadelphia projects that incorporate artwork into community revitalization, urban greening, neighborhood history and streetscape enhancement. Initiative of Fairmount Park Art Association, oldest U.S. arts group.

New Urban Arts
Providence, R.I., arts mentoring organization with programs for high-school students and emerging artists. After-school studio, community partnerships, college/career prep, Youth Council, in-school residencies, adult workshops led by high-school students, professional development programs. Founded 1997.

Nine Mile Run Greenway Project
Community dialogue on public space, art and ecology with artists, scientists, historians and planners in context of controversial Nine Mile Run development in slag-filled hills of Pittsburgh's East End.

Nuyorican Poets Cafe
Venue serving New York City's Lower East Side slam poetry, hip-hop, music and film communities. Founded 1973 by Miguel Algarin.

Place Matters
Project of City Lore and Municipal Art society to foster the conservation of New York City's historically and culturally significant places. Research, cultural resource surveys, public programs, archive, exhibits, publications. Provides testimony, consultation, and referrals in connection to endangered sites.

Plaza de la Raza Cultural Center for the Arts and Education
"The only multidisciplinary cultural arts center for Latinos in L.A." Classes, shops, fiestas and collections.

Pratt Institute Center for Community Environmental Development
Leverages professional skills - planning, architecture, public policy - to support New York community-based organizations in improving neighborhood quality of life, attacking causes of poverty and inequality, and advancing sustainable development. First university-based advocacy planning and design center in U.S. A Cross-Sector Resource.

Project Row Houses
22 renovated shotgun-style houses in Houston's historic African-American Third Ward dedicated to revolving art, photography and literary projects, plus transitional housing and services for young mothers and their children. Directed by Rick Lowe. Offers training in community arts techniques.

Radio ARTE Chicago
Award-winning Latino-owned, youth-driven, urban community radio station ("the only one in the country"). Bilingual initiative of National Museum of Mexican Art, located in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood. Offers full range of Latin music. Covers social-justice issues and engage in dialogue through community journalism and first voice forums.

Rebuilding through Art Project (RAP)
Community-based public art project in the West Baltimore neighborhood of Midtown Edmondson, founded by Baltimore artist Jay Wolf Schlossberg-Cohen to fuel revitalization efforts. Arts and leadership workshops.

Red Dive
New York-based artist team creating interactive events and guided performance-tours in unusual environments, "a radical re-envisioning of how and where art is presented." Founded by Maureen Brennan.

Regent Park Focus Media Arts Centre
Youth program in Toronto's Regent Park, Canada’s largest public housing community, to develop prevention programs and activities exploring radio and print journalism, and audio, video, photography arts. Catch da Flava Newe, Catch da Flava Radio, E.Y.E. Video Library, Focus Music Studio, Zapparoli Photo Studio. Directed by Adonis Huggins.

Robert Bowne Foundation
Supports development of out-of-school-hours literacy programs for children and youth in New York City, especially in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Grants and technical assistance, publications, e-newsletter, bibliography, links to field. Afterschool Matters Initiative: Journal, Occasional Papers, research grants, fellowships.

SAY Sí, San Antonio Youth YES!
Arts program providing tuition-free classes to creative inner-city youth in San Antonio. Tex.

San Francisco WritersCorps
Writers-in-service: published poets, fiction writers, performers conducting workshops with youth aged 6-21, primarily low-income, incarcerated, immigrant, homeless or educationally disadvantaged. Workshops occur in public schools, community centers, detention facilities, after-school programs, low-income housing. Annual anthology of youth writing; writing contests; performances at community venues. A project of San Francisco Arts Commission.

Sarai
New Media Initiative, program of Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi, India, "an alternative, nonprofit space for an imaginative reconstitution of urban public culture, new/old media practice and research and critical cultural intervention." Includes scholarly reflection and creative work on film & video, computers, telephony, print culture, radio, multimedia and the Internet.

Scrap Mettle SOUL
Community-performance organization based in Chicago, Ill., founded by Community Performance Inc.

Seattle's Arts Resource Network
Web portal for arts resources and opportunities in Seattle.

Self Help Graphics and Art
Visual-arts center located in the Chicano community of East Los Angeles since 1974; printmaking atelier, exhibition print program, Galeria Otra Vez, annual Day of the Dead celebration, Barrio Mobil Art Studio, youth programs, store.

Settlement Music School
"Largest community-based school of the arts in America," founded 1908 as a social-services center for newly arrived immigrants. Serves 15,000 children and adults in Greater Philsdelphia, 40% on scholarship or financial aid. Individual and group classes in music and related arts. Ensemble Program, Therapeutic Arts Program, award-winning Kaleidoscope Preschool, Teacher Training Institute for the Arts, concerts, summer institutes. Einstein played there weekly.

ShedSpace
Summer visual-art installations in garages, shed and outdoor buildings in neighborhoods of Atlanta, Ga. Directed by Joey Orr.

Silence the Violence
Initiative of Ella Baker Center for Human Rights to reduce violence and empower young people to speak as voices for peace in Oakland, Calif. Working to create opportunities for work, recreation and community involvement. "We do everything from throw parties to talk to lawmakers about job and community programs to create them. Our groundbreaking mix of public education, cultural events, policy advocacy and youth leadership development is making a real difference in Oakland."

Social Impact of the Arts Project (SIAP)
Launched in 1994; conducts policy research projects that describe and analyze the role cultural organizations play in metropolitan Philadelphia, Pa., and neighborhoods. Part of larger effort nationwide, particularly including the Arts and Cultural Indicators Project (ACIP) of the Urban Institute, to consider seriously the place of arts and culture in construction of social and public policy. Mark Stern and Susan Seifert, project directors. Written, published by School of Social Work, University of Pennsylvania, 1994-.

Socrates Sculpture Park
New York city park built on an abandoned riverside landfill and illegal dumpsite in 1986 by a coalition of artists and community members under leadership of artist Mark di Suvero. An open studio and exhibition space for artists, neighborhood park for local residents, outdoor museum, artist residency program. Offers special events, in-school programs and partnerships, summer outdoor artmaking workshops. Located in Long Island City (Queens).

Southside Neighborhood Arts Council
Resident-driven arts council in the Southside of Syracuse, N.Y., part of a neighborhood revitalization initiative of the Gifford Foundation. Youth arts classes and mini-grants to community arts projects.

Spiral Q Puppet Theater
Theater founded in 1996 by Matthew (Mattyboy) Hart, using giant puppets and pageantry "to mobilize communities, empower marginalized people and illuminate the victories, frustrations and possibilities of living in the neighborhoods of Philadelphia."

Spiral Workshop
Saturday art program for Chicago teens at University of Illinois at Chicago. Part of Art Education degree at UIC.

Still Waters Youth Sinfo-Nia of Metropolitan Atlanta
African-American youth orchestra giving "talented, young instrumentalists an opportunity to perform a variety of multicultural music, become more proficient musicians (in an environment where there are no auditions), travel, meet other young musicians, prepare to earn college music scholarships, and, perhaps, consider careers in symphony orchestras and/or music education." Founded as William Grant Still Memorial Youth Orchestra of Metropolitan Atlanta in 1990.

Students at the Center
Independent writing-based program directly serving high schools and middle schools in Orleans Parish public school system of New Orleans, La. Student mentor program, staff development for teachers, teen newspaper, teen and multiple-school forums, talk show, publications, media projects, community collaborations.

Studio in a School
Nonprofit, visual arts-in-education organization that places professional artists in public schools throughout New York City's five boroughs.

Sura Arts Academy
Youth photography program at Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Mich. Instructors from Detroit's College for Creative Studies teach courses in basic camera operation, provide the participants with digital cameras, and send them into their communities to document topics such as work, food, religion, recreation and family life. Students discuss their photographs in sessions designed to "strengthen cultural awareness among the area's diverse groups of Arab Americans, African Americans, Latinos and other groups in primarily lower-income communities."

Sustainable South Bronx
Organization in South Bronx, N.Y., dedicated to "environmental Justice through innovative, economically sustainable projects that are informed by the needs of the community." Founded 2001 by artist and Hunts Point resident Majora Carter. Addresses land-use, energy, transportation, water and waste policy and education "in order to advance the environmental and economic rebirth of the South Bronx to inspire solutions in areas like it across the nation and the globe." A Cross-Sector Resource.

TRUCE
The Renaissance University for Community Education at Harlem Children's Zone in New York, youth-development program for 200 adolescents that fosters academic growth and career readiness through the arts, media literacy, health and multimedia technology. Teens create award-winning cable TV program ("The Real Deal") featuring poetry, video dramas and documentaries; community murals and gardens; quarterly newspaper (Harlem Overheard). Intensive college-prep program, The Insight Center.

Taller Puertorriqueno
Cultural center founded in 1974 in the largest Puerto Rican neighborhood of Philadelphia, the North-Kensington area. Has an educational center, bookstore, gallery, theater, archive and museum collection.

The Brotherhood/Sister Sol
Youth-development organization in New York City that fosters critical thinking, practical skills for negotiating modern life, and leadership competence. Subjects include Pan-African and Latino history, sexism, and conflict resolution. Participating youth have year-round access to guidance and mentoring. Some receive opportunities to study abroad, and all are encouraged to undertake service projects in the community. A Cross Sector Resource.

The Creative Engine
Study of 150 economic and community development organizations in New York City supports the proposition that nurturing the cultural sector means focusing on the thousands of smaller organizations that feed cultural economic development at the neighborhood level. By Neil Scott Kleiman (Center for an Urban Future, 2002)

The Heritage School
Arts-centered secondary school in New York's East Harlem, a partnership between The New York City Department of Education and Teachers College, Columbia University. New York's cultural institutions (museums, gardens, theaters concert halls) used as "texts for learning." Located in Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center, which provides studios and performing space for Latino artists, dancers, musicians and actors as the centerpiece of an East Harlem Cultural Corridor. Center is also home to Taller Boriqua, Puerto Rican Workshop Inc., Los Plenaros de la 21, Puerto Rican Traveling Theater and Rebel Theater Company.

The Mirror Project
Creates, exhibits and distributes videos that promote social, cultural, and personal-awareness. A major focus of the work is teaching inner-city youth how to create videos about their everyday experiences.

The Point
Nonprofit organization dedicated to cultural and economic revitalization of Hunts Point neighborhood of South Bronx, N.Y. Arts incubator and performance space promote homegrown enterprises of young Latino and African-American entrepreneurs.

The Puppeteers Cooperative
Artists and puppeteers working in U.S. cities "to create giant puppet parades, pageants, and ceremonies of celebration and complaint, using simple materials and movements to build community cardboard extravaganzas." Founded 1976 by (the late) George Konnoff. Site includes diagrams and patternbooks for making puppets of all kinds; scripts of puppet plays; thoughts on organizing parades and pageants; links to free puppet-lending libraries and other puppetry Web sites. Organization offers videos, DVDs, workshops, services, consulting.

The Steel Yard
In Providence, R.I., offering arts and technical training programs, career-oriented training and small-business incubation at the historic Providence Steel and Iron site; 5,612-square-foot industrial shop with foundry, ceramics studio, blacksmithing & welding shops, studio space, outdoor work and exhibition space. Caters to working artists, students and community members, tradespeople, arts educators and entrepreneurs. Partners: Urban Agriculture Unit with mobile greenhouse for local education projects; Industrial Evolution promoting creative re-use of industrial discards; PUENTE, redeveloping environmentally, economically and socially sustainable community assets for communities facing gentrification; NOD (New Object Design) Studio, innovative re-purposers of old factory materials.

The Stockyard Institute
Artist Jim Duignan's collaborative art and educational project currently based in Chicago’s Westside Austin and Back of the Yard neighborhoods. Committed to engaging the questions of youth and residents through education, activism, and media, addressing the primary conditions in participant’s lives through artist collaborations and multimedia practices. Projects include “Designing a Gang-Proof Suit.” Duignan is a professor of Arts and Education at DePaul University. (Site may be under construction.)

Tigertail Productions
Florida's pioneer presenter of innovative art since 1979. International exchanges, Tigertail Youth Project in Little Havana, danceAble, educational and community programs. Based in Miami, directed by Founder Mary Luft.

Touchable Stories
Series of interactive installation/performance pieces designed to dynamically frame issue and concerns of urban neighborhoods.

Transforma Projects, New Orleans
Collective of artists and creative professionals formed after Hurricane Katrina as a means of supporting, nurturing and celebrating creative practices that impact the recovery of New Orleans. Multi-year Initiative explores how art-making can intersect with other sectors such as education, health, environment and community development. Web site is a directory of New Orleans-based projects dealing with the topics of art, social justice & recovery.

Tucson Arts Brigade
Tucson, Ariz., nonprofit organization dedicated to "the participatory arts" with emphasis on mural production and professional arts education for youth and adults.

Tucson Public Art
Tour of public art in Tucson, Ariz., created by pre-service public-school art teachers from a course at U. of Arizona.

Urban ArtWorks Seattle
Employment, training and mentoring program for at-risk youth. Artists work with youth in designing, painting and installing murals throughout Seattle.

Urban Artists Initiative
Provide emerging artists and arts organizations in Connecticut with training, grants, mentors, technical assistance, and staff support aimed at developing local arts leadership. Strong emphasis on networking participants with other artists and arts organizations within their communities and across sites through meetings, conferences. Program of Institute for Community Research.

Urban Word NYC
Youth-run program provides free creative writing, spoken word, performance and Hip-Hop resources to teenagers in New York City. Annual Teen Poetry Slam.

Village Dancers
San Francisco State University program (through S.F. Urban Institute) that sends students to teach free dance classes to children in San Francisco's Visitacion Valley and Bayview neighborhoods. Founded 2001 by Katherine Dunham Technique Dance Master Albirda Rose of SFSU’s School of Music and Dance; taught by SFSU’s graduate and undergraduate dance students. Annual concert.

Village of Arts and Humanities
Arts-based neighborhood development project in North Philadelphia, Pa., founded by artist Lily Yeh. Works with residents in communities to reclaim abandoned space, build parks, produce theater, exhibits, publications, festivals.

Voices UnBroken
Bronx-based community organization that believes "everyone has a story to tell, and that story is important. " Creative writing workshops in prisons, jails, juvenile detention centers and other alternative settings. Founded in 2001 by Victoria Sammartino.

WondeRoot
Atlanta-based nonprofit arts organization committed to uniting artists and community to inspire positive social change. WonderRoot Community Arts Center provides production facilities, facilitates arts-based service programs, encourages artists to be proactive in engaging their local communities through service work.

WriteGirl
Writing workshop for inner-city high-school girls, supported by 40 professional women writers in Los Angeles, Calif. Program of Community Partners.

Youth Communications
Writing program for urban teens in New York City. Publishes "New Youth Connections," citywide, teen-written magazine with a readership of 200,000 teens and adults; "Foster Care Youth United, bimonthly magazine by and for teens in NYC's foster-care system; and paperback anthologies of articles from the two mags.

Youth Earn & Learn Leadership Program
Pennsylvania community project using public art to connect youth to cultural and natural landscapes where they live, incorporating trail development to reclaim post-industrial landscapes and economies. A collaboration among educators, city officials, civil servants, citizens, students and generous funders. Directed by artist Ann Rosenthal.

Youth Ensemble of Atlanta
Georgia-based African-American youth theater company. Original issue-based musical dramas, professional training, internships, record company, international exchange, scholarships, Youth Empowerment Summer. Founded 1990 by Freddie Hendricks.

Youth Uprising
Nonprofit organization, seeded and supported by Alameda County and the City of Oakland, Calif., with wide range of programs and services that develop youth leadership, including arts, helth/wellness, career and education, social entrepreneurship and community building. Grew out of needs articulated by Oakland youth in 1997 after racial violence at Castlemont High School. 2,500 sq. ft. building, Media Arts Center, Dance Studio Center, Moroccan Soul Living Room, Material Arts Studio, Health Clinic, Career & Education Center, youth-run full-service restaurant & catering business.

Zaccho Dance Theatre
Site-specific dance and arts-education company with offices in San Francisco's Bayview/Hunter's Point district and partnerships with neighborhood social-service, educational and community-support institutions. Youth training in aerial dance, performance, community research; Zaccho Youth company of performers ages 11-14; student performances in S.F. theaters, artspaces. Directed by choreographer Joanna Haigood.

common green/common ground: The Community Garden Performance Project
Project of N.Y.U.'s Tisch School of the Arts Office of Community Connections. Students collaborating with N.Y. community gardeners to create address dearth of green open space in N.Y. C. neighborhoods. Produced by Jan Cohen-Cruz, directed by Sabrina Peck.

counterPulse
Partnership of 848 Community Space and Bay Area Center for Art & Technology in San Francisco, Calif. Projects include Witness Peak Artist Retreat, Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, Oxygen Editions, S.F. Labor Heritage/Rockin' Solidarity Chorus.

viBe Theater Experience
Performing-arts education organization in New York City for girls. Theater, writing and music programs. Apprenticeships, leadership training, mentoring, school partnerships.