Website: Norris Square Art Factory

Posted by on December 05, 2010

Support Norris Square Neighborhood Project and our newest youth program, Art Factory, this holiday season!

During the summer of 2010, thirty youth transformed a former warehouse into an art factory.

Youth from around Philadelphia, both in-school and out of school, pregnant and parenting, from a wide range of backgrounds, gathered in North Philadelphia to create a community arts center. Exploring issues within their communities and the lack of access to interactive arts experiences, the youth created a collaborative space to introduce the Norris Square community to multi-media arts exhibits.  Due to Art Factory’s success, youth interest and community support, the new multi-media arts program has been implemented into NSNP’s after school program. Located at Kensington Culinary Arts High School, Art Factory enables NSNP to reach more youth, and provide a wider range of educational services to youth and families of the West Kensington neighborhood.

Art Factory is a creative skills development program, designed to increase access to both art creation and exhibition as career paths within the local community. A truly multi-media arts program, youth learn skills in graphic design, dance performance, poetry, animation, drawing and video-making.  As youth develop technical skills, they also learn about the administrative and entrepreneurial side of the arts, becoming a new generation of arts administrators, teaching artists and youth leadership experts who are focused on the building up of their local arts scene. While Philadelphia has thriving arts opportunities for adults, Art Factory is bringing the creative economy to its urban youth. Art Factory has exhibited at two local gallery spaces and is actively seeking gallery partners. Youth program participants also generate revenue by conducting arts-based workshops, performing, and by selling both art and art services such as website design and video creation.  NSNP is continuing the development of Art Factory to be increasingly self-sustaining by generating income for youth participants and program operations.

Your gift to Art Factory supports the newest chapter in the long history of NSNP’s high quality Latino youth programs.  Please help us grow Art Factory as an innovative, engaging program for youth from the Norris Square community and continue our mission to nurture and actively involve neighborhood children and their families in learning responsibility for self, culture, community and the environment.

Visit us on the web at http://www.myneighborhoodproject.org!