ProjectArt is an arts program providing free arts classes to children at public libraries in major US cities.
1to the arts encourages children's self-worth, helps them communicate and improves their2in academic areas. Yet, since the 1980s, access to arts education for American school children has been on the3.
But where the American public school system is4children, non-profits are5to fill the emptiness, and one organization in particular has6plans to become the largest free art school for children in the country.
ProjectArt, founded by AdarshAlphons in Harlem in 2011, is7to New Orleans and San Francisco, two cities with many homeless young people and giving the organisation a(n)8in a total of eight cities across the US.
Its executive director, Diana Buckley Muchmore9with ProjectArt in its early days, and one experience impressed on her the10that art can make on a child's development.11her friend Alphons in teaching in a Harlem community center, Buckley Muchmore met a boy. "He was very quiet, but I12with him through a sculpture he was making13wood, and he slowly started to14to describe his work," she remembers.
Since then, Buckley Muchmore has watched as ProjectArt has embraced a model of15with the country's public library systems. The libraries give them16space, access to existing communities and materials to17the children's creations.
In the meantime, the organization is working to serve the particular needs and take18of the resources of its newest cities. In San Francisco, Buckley Muchmore has an eye on big companies like Airtbnb and Adobe, which she hopes to19for funding. The organization also receives20from foundations and individuals.
"In terms of less populated communities, we'll get there too," says Buckley Muchmore. "Eventually, we'll be in all the cities that have libraries."
