New Urban Arts

A nationally recognized interdisciplinary arts studio for high school students and emerging artists in Providence, Rhode Island.

Our mission is to build a vital community that empowers young people to develop a creative practice they can sustain throughout their lives. We provide studio, exhibition space, and mentoring for young artists who explore the visual, performing, and literary arts through yearlong free out-of-school programs. Founded in 1997, New Urban Arts serves 125 high school students in the Providence Public High Schools and 15 artists each year. We have been named one of fifty premiere arts and youth development programs in the country for four consecutive years.

Every young person must have the opportunity to develop an active imagination, and innovation in arts education ensures all young people can. We believe there is no greater possibility for change than if every American pauses throughout life to create, to use the imagination to develop possibilities for ourselves and the world.

Our democracy will fulfill its promise once all of us have the freedom and ability to make meaning, formulate ideas, ask hard questions, and imagine more promising alternatives for the world and ourselves. All young people – no matter their place in society – are entitled to become more creative, independent thinkers.

The sad truth, though, is that the majority of us do not develop a creative practice. The majority of us learn we are not creative. Systemic sorting selects a few as “creative,” while leaving the rest behind. Often, this occurs by not offering the arts consistently in education. At worst, arts education upholds the idea that the majority of learners are not technically gifted as artists, and, therefore, not creative. Bureaucratic school systems and large schools slow to change fail to create learning environments in which the practice of imagination and freedom is possible.

For most of America, few have the resources needed to overcome these barriers. Few develop a creative practice. Young people must develop a more active imagination, which provides the freedom to envision new possibilities for themselves and the world. For one to work towards this practice, people need a network of support that pushes them to create. If people can draw on diverse sources of inspiration and connect with artists across disciplines, that community, and we believe, that practice will be stronger.

Our programs have three learning goals for our students and artist mentors: to strengthen self-initiative, to improve one's capacity to build strong, trusting relationships with others, and to deepen and expand their creative practice.

They address three needs: A need for innovative arts education for urban youth, a need for future leaders who value the role imagination plays in the positive development of youth and communities, and a need for quality after-school programming.

Our programs are:

After-School Studio: our core arts mentoring program for Providence Public High School Students;
Becoming the Change: our professional development program for artist mentors;
Art Camp: a series of arts workshops for adults and kids led by high school students,
Residencies for a Creative Workforce: residencies for emerging, creative businesses for a trade of services;
Providence Youth Arts Collaborative: leadership of local arts organizations serving youth sharing ideas and resources;

Also, New Urban Arts has a gallery and storefront exhibition space in which we exhibit visual art regularly, as well as present fashion shows, poetry readings, and other community events.

Providence Public High School Students
Over 40% of students in the Providence public schools live in poverty. Only 24% of Providence residents age 25 and over have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher, and 68% of families in Providence have an income below $50,000. Only one public high school in the city has an average combined SAT score above 825.

Over 120 high school students register for our free programs each September. They learn about us through friends, guidance counselors, teachers, social workers, and parents. Data indicates that the majority of students learn about us through friends’ recommendations. New Urban Arts creates a diverse student body by actively recruiting when any community is underrepresented in the studio.

As a result of these efforts over eight years, students represent 13 different high schools, and 28% are African-American, 28% Latino, 22% Caucasian, 14% Southeast Asian, 3% Caribbean, and 5% bi-racial. Students come from homes in every corner of Providence, and they are predominately female (72%). Our student body equally represents ages between 14 and 18. 5% of our students identify as LGBTQQ.

Emerging Artists
Artist mentors are emerging artists, often between the ages of 18 and 40. They are former high school participants, college students, in between college and graduate school, graduate school, or practicing community artists and designers. Their artistic interests widely vary. They are most interested in growing as artists and educators, and view New Urban Arts as an opportunity to do so.

The Public
New Urban Arts depends on volunteers and donors to support our programs. In addition, there are public performances, exhibitions, and presentations in which the community celebrates the artwork and creative voices of our participants.

Our organizational and programmatic practice are guided by the following values:

Connection: Authentic Experiences and Bonds Fuel Us
We believe that everyone needs a mentor – someone to trust, to share honesty with, and enable us to be accountable to ourselves. We need spaces where it is encouraged to be ourselves, to have our own ideas and vision. We approach the arts as a way to help us feel connected to others and reminded what is essential.

Voice: Young People Prevail
All are welcome at New Urban Arts. The diverse voices of young people drive the direction of our programs and organization.

Risk: A Push into New and Positive Directions
Find beauty in mistakes or failure. Through accident or mishap, there are opportunities to learn. It is hard to dare when fear of screwing up, letting down, or reprisal looms; and, you can’t grow if you don’t dare. We actively seek ways to push each other out of our comfort zones to stay engaged and challenged.

Inclusion: Everyone is on Equal Footing
You can never tell where the next meaningful artwork will come from. You have to encourage everyone. We believe everyone is ready to inspire or be inspired, with something to teach or learn.

Leadership: The Baton is yours for the Taking
Anyone can lead a project. If we provide committed, passionate people with direction and support, their project will achieve its goals. The same person can be a supportive follower and a visionary on different projects. The ink on our job descriptions is always wet. Roles and responsibilities thankfully evolve here.

We seek to further understand the following questions:

What resources, skills, and opportunities do young people need today so that they will make space throughout their lives for creative thought and expression?

What is an ideal level of participation for students to work towards this goal?

How diverse is our student body and is this diversity reflected throughout various participation levels?

How can artist mentors become more effective in engaging students in learning and deepening their artistic practice?

To what extent is New Urban Arts an inclusive environment that encourages students to work toward our learning outcomes?

In what ways do students develop self-initiative through participation in our program?

In what ways do students strengthen their ability to build trusting and caring relationships with others?

In what ways do students deepen their creative practice through participation in our program?

In what ways do students deepen their creative practice through participation in our program?

100% of our participating seniors apply to college

Over 950 high school students and 150 artist mentors have participated since founding in 1997

Each student participates on average in 100 hours of arts mentoring per school year, and the majority of our students participate for more than one year;

Students participate on average of 1-2 days a week for 5-7 months during each school year;

82% of our students strongly agree that they will recommend our programs to friends;

Full scholarships to Rhode Island School of Design have been awarded to 3 of our student participants;

Several students each year win scholarships for RISD's Pre-College Enrichment Program

94% of student participants strongly agree that they have developed more confidence and improved as artists as a result of our program.

94% of our students have said that they can talk to artist mentors or staff about difficult personal issues.

Measurement

New Urban Arts is piloting the following measurement tools:

Student registration system to measure the diversity of our student body;
Participation tracking system to measure the duration and frequency of participation;
Portfolios and exit interviews for artist mentors to measure our ability to engage students in learning and deepening their creative practice;
Portfolios for students to measure the extent to which they deepen their creative practice;
Exit interviews for students to measure our ability to build an inclusive, stimulating learning environment;
A retroactive post survey for parents to measure our parent engagement strategies, as well as the impact in their children that they can feel be attributed to our program;
Tools for students to assess and deepen their creative practice through our program;
Tools to measure the extent to which artist mentors build an inclusive, stimulating environment for learning;
A pre and post survey to measure students progress toward our 3 learning outcomes (self-initiative, social relationships, creative practice), as well as the extent to which New Urban Arts builds an inclusive, stimulating environment, and have effectively trained and supported mentors that engage them in learning.
Case studies in which the Program Director draws on information for all graduating seniors from their portfolios, exit interviews, the creative practice rubric, and written reflection tools to present the development of students over a multi-year period.

Recognition

Named one of fifty premiere arts and youth development programs in the country in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005
Named a Champion in Action by Citizens Bank and NBC10
Described by the Providence School Department as one of the most innovative approaches to youth development in the city.
Voted as the state’s best non-profit in 2003 by the readers of the Providence Phoenix
Founding Executive Director, Tyler Denmead, has been selected as the state’s best role model by Rhode Island Monthly and “one of 10 people you don’t now, but soon will because they are changing the face of Providence” by the Providence Monthly.
Awarded the Daedelus Award by Providence Waterfire

During a strategic planning process in 2004, youth expressed how one, warehouse-sized studio, or, small, satellite studios throughout the city would threaten the intimacy and diversity achieved in our present one. We learned there is no real cost saving by serving more students through our model. On the contrary, growth presents far too great an opportunity cost to individuals involved. The needs beyond arts programming of the students we work with necessitates intimacy and a personalized learning environment promoted by smallness.

In conversations with young people through the planning process, they often expressed that New Urban Arts “must get the word out” more; and the more the studio is full with youth, the more their experience and commitment is validated. They also consistently expressed their interest in making sure that other young people know about opportunities at New Urban Arts.

We feel real change through our model is most likely to occur in the lives of young people when they feel responsible for an organization that feels big, but is small. Ironically, this tension also exists organizationally as we consider our sustainability and potential impact. How can New Urban Arts retain a small local practice, but be big enough to remain financially stable and encourage the broad change outlined by our mission? But, remaining small and nimble so that we can adapt, evolve, and affect change in the lives of local youth should not mean that we limit access to relationships that can challenge us.

Our first artist-mentor founded New Urban Arts in 1997. One entrepreneur with a big idea and broad support provoked change for youth in Providence. Subsequently, numerous high school students have become leaders at New Urban Arts by serving as artist mentors. Artist mentors have moved beyond our studio to start new initiatives or contribute to existing ones throughout the country. They are becoming teachers, artists, and administrators in arts organizations. As our alumni move throughout the country, we are learning that emerging leaders – those who have participated in our programs as well as like-minded programs throughout the country - have little support to exchange ideas and grow their practice. By remaining isolated, there are few opportunities for this leadership to develop a unifying agenda and language. If this leadership grows and evolves, while remaining disconnected, there will be few opportunities to leverage the collective resources and expertise needed to address the root causes that prevent creativity from gaining a stronghold in American life.

We believe relationships among entrepreneurial, emerging artists across sectors and regions can promote systemic change and improve local practice. For New Urban Arts, a network of emerging leadership presents the opportunity to push our model and improve our impact on local youth. It strengthens our capacity by establishing a fluid exchange of leadership by attracting emerging leaders from across the country and introducing our emerging leaders to innovative practice and support beyond our studio. We also become porous, allowing for the ideas of promising leaders to influence our local practice, and vice versa, challenging our organization to adapt and evolve. While remaining small, our organization also interconnected so that we can better leverage and attract resources and achieve some of the advantages of being big. Finally, it affords us the opportunity to change an entrenched pattern on a national level, without compromising the quality of our local programming.