www.newurbanarts.org

New Urban Arts is a nationally recognized arts studio and gallery for high school students and emerging artists in Providence Rhode Island. Its mission is to build a vital community that empowers young people as artists and leaders to develop a creative practice they can sustain throughout their lives. The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities has named New Urban Arts one of the nation's top 50 youth arts programs six times, most recently in 2009. Founded in 1997, New Urban Arts serves over 300 high school students, 20 emerging artists and over 2,000 visitors through free youth programs, professional development, artist residencies and public performances, workshops and exhibitions each year.

For New Urban Arts, a sustainable creative practice is about continually seeking to bring people together, by recruiting and training artists from a range of backgrounds to mentor high school students in free after-school and summer programs. The work that emerges from the studio is the result of artists and youth working as collaborators and peers, not following a script.

The majority of New Urban Arts students live in Providence’s poorest neighborhoods. In spite of the challenges they face, young people graduate high school and go to college (over 90% of New Urban Arts’ seniors graduate high school and get into college), and most importantly create opportunities for themselves. By using the arts to put young people in charge of their learning, New Urban Arts is developing the citizens and leaders needed for the 21st century.