Art Programs For 5,000 In-Need New York Children

Dear Arts For All Community,

We hope you are excited for the summer! The 25-26 school year, full of brilliant arts education programs for NYC’s underserved children, is now coming to a close. We were able to deliver workshops that inspired our students and built Core Values of self-confidence, self-expression, teamwork, resilience and creativity.

As summer begins, we are happy to share several highlights with you from the 2025-2026 school year, and updates to our virtual classroom.

Introducing New Program Manager Serra Kook

We are so happy to introduce a new member to the team, Serra Kook, who entered into the role of Program Manager this school year!

Serra obtained her BA in Global Studies and Printmaking from The New School’s Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts and Parsons School of Design. Raised in the non-profit visual arts community, she spent her childhood as an arts student immersed in a wide range of artistic mediums. In addition to volunteering with numerous nonprofit organizations, Serra has worked at The Latin School of Chicago and as a writer for Ten Thirty Media magazines.

Guided by her own creative practice and deep commitments to community building, Serra explores themes of intersectionality and identity, and believes that accessible arts programming and education are essential for building connection and belonging.

Serra is thrilled to be a member of the Arts For All Team and looks forward to helping reflect the mission of accessibility, equity, and joy across the arts.

2025-2026 School Year Highlights:

This year our Artistic Residency Program provided about 447 in-person workshops, and our Literacy Through the Arts Program provided about 536 in-person workshops. In School Year 25-26, we partnered with 13 different NYC schools and youth organizations, serving about 1,271 students in total.

We powered up our ability to teach our Multi-Lingual Learners this school year: we had 5 teaching artists (Lina Montoya, Natalie del Villar, Sam Funk, Karla Banning, Brynne O’Rourke) who incorporated bilingual/Spanish language for English Language Learner students. Additionally, our Program Manager is fluent in Spanish, and several other of our TAs can effectively teach in Spanish. Given the large population of Spanish-speaking communities we work in, we now print all promotional flyers, letters sent home to parents, and photo release forms in both English and Spanish.

Here are just a few highlighted programs from residencies this school year:

Literacy Through the Arts at PS15

Teaching Artist Briget Villanueva facilitated 8 residencies during School Year 25-26 at PS15. Briget’s workshops were rooted in the Visual Arts discipline, catering to Grades 1-2. Across these residencies, students built foundational studio habits and confidence through a sequence of hands-on drawing and making projects. Early sessions focused on establishing sketchbooks as an everyday artist tool through simple bookbinding and personalization, followed by collaborative drawings and a school-mapping activity. Students also created a Heart Map to connect personal interests and inspirations to visual expression. Later in the year, the residency extended to a 2D Fossils project in which students created fossil imagery as part of a multi-day multimedia unit. The residency series strengthened ELA/EL learning through vocabulary and visual storytelling.

Artistic Residency Program at PS76

Teaching Artist Allison Reed (with bilingual TA Sam Funk assisting with dual-language needs) taught 23 workshops over a full school year to Grade 2 students through a theater and social-emotional learning residency, engaging students in arts-integrated workshops such as weekly read-alouds and interactive, team-based theatre exercises. Students explored themes of diversity within characters and stories, strengthened their empathy skills, and made meaningful connections between their own lived experiences and texts, all while expanding their actor's toolbox of expression, voice, and movement. Through presentations of texts such as “Maybe Something Beautiful” by Theresa Howell and Isabel Campoy, students examined how art can transform communities. Similarly, “Thank You Omu!” by Oge Mora invited students to explore themes of food in connection to culture and identity.

Artistic Residency Program at PS243

Teaching Artist Nami worked with Pre-K students at PS243, introducing them to the fundamentals of dance. Through breath-work exercises and warm ups, students build SEL and self-regulation skills, while exploring how to create shapes with their bodies. Students were also introduced to a variety of genres — such as ballet and hip hop as they are inspired by different rhythms and music. As students developed more confidence and technical skills within their practice, Nami aimed to introduce students to the fundamentals of group choreography.

Virtual Classroom:

Our Virtual Classroom provides both educational video workshops featuring dance, poetry, crafts, and video editing as well as interactive Activity Books, Tic-Tac-Toe boards for on-the-go learning and more!

In Spring 2026, we released: “Everyday Moves with Ms. Nami” a playful, hands-on movement video series for young learners. Across three 10-minute episodes, students explore sound, line, and shape through rhythm, imagination, and full-body movement—using simple, everyday materials to spark creativity and joyful expression.

Our latest video series premiered June 2026, we released “Social Emotional Learning: Art as Storytelling” by Ciara Ruddock. Throughout the series, artists will follow along in deconstructing a painting and creating their own work of art using colors that symbolize how they feel that day. Artists will then cut up the painting and piece it back together. Each lesson will end with an optional poetry exercise.

Stay tuned! Another new series is set to release in July 2026, providing workshops and lessons themed around finding inspiration from nature.

Thank You!

None of this would be possible without the support of donors like you who see the importance of Arts For All’s work and make contributions to keep us fully operational. It’s amazing to see the difference a dedicated community can make for thousands of students in New York City!

Wishing everyone a fantastic summer, and we hope to have your support again for the next school year!