For almost 18 years, Art Start has connected New York City’s fine artists with homeless and underserved children to make masterpieces. From filmmakers to photojournalists to fashion designers and architects, Art Start’s nationally recognized model of arts-education has been powered by volunteer artists — over 1,000 of them to be exact!

Volunteering for Art Start is more then just community service — it’s life enhancing for all involved. Paired up with young people whose dreams far surpass their immediate circumstances, artwork is just one of the magical results. Your ideas, your time, your expertise and your willingness to make a relationship with a child or a teen, even if just for one night a week, will open up their minds to seeking opportunity and plowing towards their goals — not to mention how it will open you up as an artist and creative mind.

The Commitment

Art Start volunteers have many ways to contribute to our mission, but the main one is to be a Project Volunteer, which requires of you to:

- Commit to a full "session", one night per week, with no more than TWO unplanned absences.

Sessions:

Fall: Last week of August-December 21st

Winter/Spring: 2nd week of January - May 21st

Summer: May 21-August 21.

- Have a background or interest in the arts and a willingness to help create a workshop of your liking.

- Have a positive, open-mind and believe that anything is possible with vision and commitment.

 

- Attend a general information meeting, a one-on-one interview, undergo a federal sex offender background check ($25 at the cost of the volunteer), and undergo a volunteer artist training for 2-3 hours 

 

Schedule

Art Start is in its fall 2009 session.  We are currently recruiting for the following positions for our winter/ spring 2010 session which takes place from January 11- May 21, 2010:

 

- Musicians with basic or advanced skills in piano, drums, guitar or bass.

 

- Songwriters and people with song-writing/recording experience, especially Hip Hop but can be other backgrounds.

All workshops take place on weekday evenings, after 6pm.

 

We are always accepting applications for visual arts and other artistic genres, but we are not actively recruiting for these workshops at this time.  You may not receive a response for a month or two, until a position opens up.

 

See online application below.

The Projects

Our workshops take place inside the city's shelters, group homes, case work facilities and at Art Start Studios.  They require volunteers that are highly committed and reliable. 

The goal of our projects is to create art, music and creative expression with young people by infusing practical and technical skills with messages that challenge their self-perceptions, their views of society and current events in addition to providing them with opportunities to build self-confidence and trust their own unique voice to make good decisions in life.  Due to the transient and in-crisis nature of the majority of our youth, commitment and reliability are paramount in achieving our mission. Everything else comes second.

Art Start uses a learning-based approach that builds upon the pre-existing interests of our youth participants and inspires them to find the answers to their questions within themselves.

Apply

Please fill out the application (which will open in a pop-up window).