Arts Ignite

❤️ Reflecting on our time in Waterloo this summer, cue the tears 🥹

We are so grateful to have such thoughtful, caring, and powerhouse partners and peers, including the one and only Dr. Simona Boroianu, the Dual Language Immersion and Second Language Learner Program Coordinator from the Waterloo Community Schools District.

This program is a true collaboration on all levels. We can’t wait until next year!

🎨✨ This summer, let’s ignite the arts together! Become an Arts Ignite monthly sustainer and fuel creativity all year long. Your ongoing support is essential to our mission and makes a vital impact on young people.

💖 Donating monthly isn’t just giving — it’s empowering. Your commitment creates mentorship and self-empowerment opportunities for young artists who may not have traditional paths available to them.

🌟 Swipe to discover how your monthly gift can transform lives over a year! Let’s paint a brighter future through the power of the arts.

🎉 The 2023 Annual Report is in!

The year 2023 was a standout, making a record-breaking impact and reaching nearly 6,000 youth worldwide - doubling our reach since 2022!

As you know, the arts have the power to ignite imagination, strengthen one’s sense of self, and foster a sense of community among young people. Your championing of arts education is pivotal in empowering our youth and providing them artistic experiences that would otherwise be out of reach.

We are proud of the unparalleled joy, creativity, and expansive community impact we saw in 2023 and are excited about our future. Click the link in our bio to read our report and discover the magic we created, and will continue to create, together. 🌟

Cheers to our third year in Waterloo! 🥳🎉

After this year’s camp success, our team in Waterloo is having a blast exploring the local sites in Iowa. We absolutely loved Three Pines Farm! Swipe for a surprise! 🦙

🎨✨ When art = shared story ❤️

Witnessing the creation of a community mural never gets old! With every individual brushstroke, these students wove together a collective tapestry full of vibrant hues.

How gorgeous is this piece?! A testament to the power of collaboration and community. What does community mean to you?

🎨 Igniting creativity, one arts-filled week at a time!

🔥 This week, Arts Ignite Waterloo brings together 60+ newcomer students speaking 15+ languages, for a 2-week summer camp of art and pure inspiration! ✨

🌟 It’s incredible to see campers unleash their creativity across a range of art forms, from creative writing to dance. 📸 Swipe to witness just some of the magic of self-expression, collaboration, and pure joy!

“It’s good to see me, isn’t it?!” If you’re our Teaching Artist Austen debuting as Glinda on the Wicked tour, then heck yes!

Two weeks back, Lindsay and our Teaching Artist Morgan saw Austen bring down the house this in one of her first performances as Glinda the Good. So cool to see our Teaching Artists excel in their craft!

Let’s give it up for Austen’s debut in the comments and as a bonus, swipe to see where Austen, Lindsay, and Morgan first met as Arts Ignite Teaching Artists in India back in 2019! 👏🏾👏🏽

Our third core value is creative capacity!

We teach critical thinking, creative problem solving, and collaboration to our students—encouraging them to wonder, imagine, and strengthen their essential soft-skills.

Looking to build the creative capacity of your students or community? Talk to us! It’s what we do (winky emoji).

The next core value we’re highlighting is community!

Via arts-based programming, our teachers and partners build strong, vibrant communities that help students cultivate deep connections and healthy relationships with one another.

Looking to cultivate community or plan an arts-based community event? Talk to us! It’s what we do. 😉

We got a lot going on over here at Arts Ignite — in the best way possible, of course!

For folks who may be newer here, we thought we’d hone in on what are core values are and some of the ways we cultivate them. To start, courage!

At Arts Ignite, our work uses artistic expression to awaken innate potential within our students. From there, they build the belief, bravery, and motivation they need to dream big and explore new paths.

Looking to foster courage within your community? Talk to us! It’s what we do. 😉

Follow us TODAY for an instagram takeover with Broadway’s George Washington and Ham4Progress member, Tamar Greene!

…and remember, only six days left to donate and enter our sweepstakes to win two tickets to see Hamilton on Broadway. Click the link in our bio and do not throw away your shot to support Arts Ignite!

🎉 Opening night (morning) is today!

We’re buzzing with excitement over this world premiere musical created by the fourth grade students of PS 333X, The Longwood Academy of Discovery!

🎭 The creativity, collaboration, and fun we’ve seen throughout this residency is just off the charts. 10/10 would recommend Heroes of Adventure Academy!

Swipe to see some awesome opening morning moments!

Although it only happens once a year, if we’re honest, we’re always thinking about artsINSIDEOUT (aIO)! Swipe to learn more about one of our most enduring partnerships.

Just a few years back, founder Dick Scanlan said: “Letting the Nkosi’s Haven community take ownership of coming up with the theme this year is a slam dunk from which there’s no turning back. Their investment in the process, and the discussions we had about the contenders, was scintillating and inspiring.”

We can’t wait to see what will happen at aIO 2024!

Breaking News! 📣 We are pleased to welcome Lindsay Roberts Greene as our NEW Executive Director!

Teaching Artist/Volunteer ⏩ Director of Programs ⏩Deputy Executive Director for Programs and Operations ⏩ Executive Director!

Over the years, Lindsay's passion for our mission and dedication to our students around the world has proven her to be an invaluable asset as we’ve built new partnerships, launched new programs, and expanded our reach farther than ever before.

As Executive Director, Lindsay hopes to continue realizing Arts Ignite’s vision to be a Class A, go-to, arts education organization for schools and partners around the world.

We also want to express our sincerest gratitude to Carl Sylvestre, our outgoing Executive Director, for his leadership and commitment to our mission for the past two years.

For the full press release and to learn more about Lindsay's vision for Arts Ignite, click on the link below! In the meantime, let's show some big love for Lindsay and gratitude for Carl in the comments!

https://artsignite.org/welcome-lindsay-roberts-greene-as-arts-ignites-new-executive-director/

Communidad

Highlighting another one of our program standards today! Art Ignite’s mission-driven pedagogy includes a strong emphasis on social emotional learning (SEL).

The arts provide a perfect medium for teaching SEL skills. Through creative projects and collaborative activities, Arts Ignite weaves SEL into every lesson, supporting students to develop healthy identities, explore mutual understanding, practice empathy, and more.

Swipe to learn more about our ongoing partnership with where we led activities on self-portraits and courage that allowed students to expand their sense of self and stretch their imagination!

Arts Ignite creates spaces for young people to cultivate and expand their sense of self.

We believe in developing partnerships and programming that ignite students’ courage and confidence, helping them develop the skills to succeed in the classroom and beyond!

Check out our programmatic standards in practice! At Arts Ignite we believe in access to the arts — in all senses of the word. In the classroom, we are proud to prioritize Universal Design for Learning alignment to spark curiosity, increase accessibility, and optimize learning for all young people.

🎨 Swipe to learn more about our recent visual arts residency with P.S. 24 and Extreme Kids & Crew! We love that this series focuses on play — offering a joyful, multimodal learning experience for neurodivergent scholars.

A powerful story in two acts 🎬❤️🥹 Swipe to feel all the warm fuzzies from one of our student’s journey at PS X379.

Our TAs and our students truly embody our core value of courage. It never gets old to witness how artistic expression awakens innate potential and possibilities within young people.

We may not all be — or want to be — art professionals, but we can all explore our artistry and feel the power of creativity.

And that’s a wrap! We’re beaming at this joyous conclusion of our first Newcomer Youth Theater Experience in East Harlem!

Can we get a round of applause for these 2nd and 3rd graders showing off their certificates of completion?? 👏🏾👏🏿👏🏼 Be sure to swipe to check out a close up of their certificates! ➡️

🎭 Supporting newcomer youth with a MLL/ELL designation in five elementary schools across NYC, The Newcomer Youth Theater Experience (NYTE), held in partnership with Arts Ignite and the DOE’s ARTS Office, explores the use of theater and creative strategies to support student language acquisition and cultural adjustment.

“What’s your favorite memory from this dance residency?”
We’re loving this response.

Creating art. Making memories.🌟

At Arts Ignite, we strive to cultivate brave spaces where young people can feel supported to experiment and grow — every. single. time.

Ubumwe = a Kinyabwisha term meaning “togetherness”

to this time last year when we participated in the Ubumwe project, a multi-partner collaborative exploration of the power of arts education at the Kyangwali Refugee Settlement in western Uganda. 🇺🇬

Our Arts Ignite TAs Quynn and Thembile led professional development workshops for local school leaders and teachers situated in the Kyangwali Refugee Settlement, home to over 135,000 refugees coming primarily from the Democratic Republic of Congo but also Burundi, Rwanda, and South Sudan.

The pilot program continues to prove the positive youth development outcomes of arts integrated ducational experiences and we look forward to teaming up again soon for Ubumwe 2.0!

📣 Stop scrolling for a sec! We've got some new program managers at Arts Ignite and we want to tell you all about 'em! Swipe to read about our two newest team members and show them some love in the comments 🥳.

“…even as engaged with the content as they were, they didn’t tie themselves to a final image if you will. It was about the making, and community in the art room.”

Reflecting on his recent lesson with Covenant House, our TA Isaac speaks to the power of art making and our core values. It's not the destination, it's the journey!

Happy International Women’s Day!
We’re celebrating by uplifting our dance education and creative careers partnership with the Young Women’s Leadership Schools throughout NYC and the Student Leadership Network. �
Join us at the SLN 2024 Whole Girl Education National Conference on March 17-19 in NYC where we’ll be presenting for our second year on girls education, the arts, and developing student agency through dance!