We believe that everyone is an artist.

We believe in offering a variety of classes in order to stimulate creativity and appeal to different learning styles.

We believe in allowing students an opportunity to identify with art in their own unique way.

We believe in making the arts accessible to everyone.

We believe in the art of collaboration and the importance of a final presentation to celebrate the achievement of goals and learning.

Our Youth Arts Institute serves over 1,000 of Hartford’s inner-city children with completely free before-school, during-school, after-school, weekend and summer arts and literacy-based programming as well as free nutritious meals and snacks.  Our Youth Arts Institute classes offer a wide variety of experiences in the arts that allow students the opportunity to experiment and find a medium that speaks to them. Many of our class offerings blend one or more discipline in the arts, allowing the students to benefit from a hybrid of mediums and techniques.  Our programs focus on how the arts relate to other subjects such as reading, writing, science and math which sharpens their skills in all of these subjects.  By creating a positive association with learning through fun, creative activities, the students readily integrate what they learn into their daily lives.

Charter Oak’s Youth Arts Institute is an exciting opportunity for students to become involved in a variety of arts. Classes are FREE and include visual arts, music, dance and theatre!Youth Arts Institute classes will take place at Charter Oak Cultural Center. Please call 860.249.1207 for class descriptions and our current class schedule.

Our Youth Arts Institute offerings include:

• Before and After-School Classes at Charter Oak and other locations
• Shared Ability Dance – an inclusive dance class for students at Bulkeley High School
• Read It and Sleep, a monthly event for neighborhood children and their families to enjoy snacks, hear a bedtime story and take home a free a copy of the book
• Putting Down Roots in Hartford, a summer program that allows students to plan, create, plant, maintain and harvest an organic garden.  The curriculum includes the arts, nutrition, science, math and reading.  Our greenhouse and the gardens–in three locations throughout the city– provide fresh vegetables for the children, their families and the community
• Wadsworth Workshops, where  students to explore exhibits at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art then create their own artwork in response to what they viewed
• Dinner and a Movie, an opportunity for young people and their families to enjoy a free meal and a film outdoors in our garden.  The films we select are based on popular books and we provide each family with a free copy of that book

Registration is required, and space is limited.

SPONSORS:

Our Youth Arts Institute is funded in part by

Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving

Aetna

Alexander A. Goldfarb Memorial Trust

Bank of America

The Barnes Foundation, Inc.

J. Walton Bissell Foundation, Inc.

The Common Sense Fund, Inc.

City of Hartford: Community Development Block Grant funds allocated to Charter Oak Temple Restoration Association, Inc.

The Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation, Inc.

The First Church of Christ in Hartford

Fisher Foundation

The Fund for Greater Hartford

Ellis A. Gimbel Trust

Harry E. Goldfarb Family Foundation Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving

The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.

Hartford Foundation for Public Giving

Mabel F. Hoffman Charitable Trust

S. A. Johnson Family Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving

LEGO Children’s Fund

Lincoln Financial Group Foundation

The George A. & Grace L. Long Foundation

Joyce and Andrew Mandell

William and Alice Mortensen Foundation

NewAlliance Foundation

Charles Nelson Robinson Fund

The Joseph S. Stackpole Charitable Trust

Travelers

Wireless Zone Foundation

We are proud to be the training partner of:

National Inclusion Project

(updated 05/16/13)