The one-year grant ensures that ArtBeat can continue to provide music and painting, drawing, quilt and mural-making to special education children hospitalized for orthopedic, psychiatric and other medical issues. The hospitals in the program are Kingsbrook Memorial and Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, Mount Sinai in Manhattan, and Bronx Lebanon Hospital in the Bronx.

“Our partnership with Hospital Schools is an exciting and unique collaboration that merges arts, health care and special education,” says Dena Malarek, Arts Horizons Director, Special Populations and NYC Residencies.

“By bringing professional artists into hospitals, we are helping patients at a critical time by sparking creativity, and supporting learning and healing. Beyond these documented benefits of arts in health care, it is the humanizing effect that arts can bring to an individual, family, and hospital community in the time of medical uncertainty, that is truly meaningful and important.”

The grant from The New York Community Trust is from the DeWitt Wallace Fund for Youth in The Trust. DeWitt and his wife founded Reader’s Digest.

“We hope that this grant brings joy to a special community of young New Yorkers,” said Kerry McCarthy, program officer at The New York Community Trust. “Arts programming has transformational powers and is a vitally important part of the healing process.”

An original mural created by Hospital School Students at Kings County Hospital, working with Arts Horizons Teaching Artist Dimitar Lukanov, is featured on the cover of the 2012 VSA New York City Murals Calander.  This is an exciting way to launch the new year with our 2012 programs that will provide music and visual arts residencies at 5 NYC Hospital school sites with generous support and funding from the NYC Community Trust.

For the third annual “Student to Student Mentoring” program, mentors from James Caldwell High School were paired up with students from Washington Elementary School. This year, the program promotes literacy within the district by pairing 21 special education high school students with 28 special education elementary students for a letter writing campaign and a shared interest in reading.

In addition to this year’s new literacy theme, the program was steered in a fun creative direction. Sponsored by the Caldwell-West Caldwell Education Foundation, the program’s expansion allowed the student mentors to write children’s books that were later illustrated by students enrolled in the James Caldwell High School’s computer graphics classes. The classes were led by art teacher, Mea Amacher with support from resident artist, writer and illustrator, Irene Kelly.

An Artist -in-Education (AIE) grant funded the book project and was secured by Robin Keil, the program’s advisor and special education teacher and Amacher. The AIE program is carried out through a partnership between the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a Partner Agency of the national Endowment for the Arts, and a consortium made up of Arts Horizons and Young Audiences New Jersey.

The finished children’s books will be on display at the Caldwell Public Library in March 2012.

On January 17th don’t just eat. Eat for a cause at Blue Moon Mexican Cafe! Arts Horizons will be a hosting a community night at their Englewood location. Gather your co-workers for lunch or bring your friends and family for dinner. Whoever you choose to dine with that day, 20% of your bill (excluding tax and gratuity) will be donated to Arts Horizons when you present the community night flyer. We at Arts Horizons appreciate your support and in return we promise a fun dinning experience, great food and prizes.

Don’t forget to print and bring the flyer with you. See you there!

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

Blue Moon Mexican Cafe
23 E Palisade Avenue
Englewood, NJ 07631

11:30am – 11:00pm

Lunch, Dinner, Take-Out & Delivery
Applies to Catering & Gift Card Sales

We had a great time doing our Blues Rock Connection program at PS 129 in the Bronx yesterday.  The school is lucky enough to have a music program and a great music teacher in Dennis McCumber.

When I asked them questions about the instruments, they had all the answers right off the bat and when they clapped along, they were right on the beat!

That area of the Bronx has a large hispanic population, and they went wild when we did our “La Bamba/Tequila” medley.  Surprisingly, the second group were big Elvis fans and sang along on “Hound Dog”. The students seemed very interested in the social aspect of how the blues started and how the music led to so much social change in this country.  And, of course, “I Feel Good” at the end had ‘em rockin’ in their seats and dancing their way to the next class.

So grateful to be able to put my lifetime of playing this music to such a valuable purpose.

- Richard Frank
Blues Rock Connection

Join us at the LeRoy Neiman Art Center as we bring together nine talented artists with unique gift items just in time for the holidays.

The Gift of Art Holiday Marketplace will feature a variety of arts and crafts works at many different price levels, that are treasures for personal use and wonderful gifts for family and friends. Come shop and mingle with the artists who bring their many varied talents to this first annual event. Hope to see you there!

Saturday & Sunday
December 17 & 18, 2011
12 noon – 7pm

The LeRoy Neiman Art Center is located at 2785 Frederick Douglas Boulevard @ West 148th Street in Harlem.

Featured Artisans include:
Marvin Sin | The Art of Leather
Grace Williams | Potpourri creations
Donovan Nelson| Drawings & paintings
Omo Misha | Jewelry & home accessories
Old Earth Creates by Nanette | Jewelry art
Tanya Montegut | Dolls by MonTQ
Rachel Sydlowski | Ceramics
Angelic Artistry | Skin & hair care products
Sohe Designs | imaginative home decor

For more information, please call (212) 862-2787 or email us at neimancenter@artshorizons.org

It’s always great to receive feedback on our programs! On November 4th, The Improv School performed The 5 W’s of Story for the students at the Bronx Charter School for Children.

Today, we received a special package from the students in the mail. Included in the package was a stack full of letters and pictures expressing and illustrating their favorite part of the performance. We really enjoyed the student’s feedback here in the office and want to thank the Bronx Charter School for Children for taking the time out to share with us.

“Your workshop was education building bridges and was liberating to my soul.” 

November 11, 2011 – These are the words of one of the 80 teacher assistants from CPNJ who participated in a professional development program with Arts Horizons (AH) to integrate the arts into the education curriculum at  the Horizon Lower School and High School in Livingston NJ. Cerebral Palsy of North Jersey  (CPNJ) is dedicated to enhancing the lives of people with disabilities and other special needs by supporting personal growth, independence and participation in the community.

Arts Horizons Teaching Artists, Vince Ector and Arthur Wilson led this day of learning through the arts.  Both are Master Teaching Artists and Mentors in the Arts Horizons Special Education Artist Academy.

Mr. Ector facilitated a day of adapted music trainings for staff to learn specialized percussion for their students.  Vince Ector -  drummer, composer, bandleader and educator – is a professional recording industry musician in high demand and performs at leading jazz festivals both in the US and abroad.  He brought his expertise in a day of active music making for the CPNJ staff to make sure everyone of their students can have an a true opportunity for technical music instruction and participation.

The “Drama and Gesture Workshop,” presented by AH Master Teaching Artist Arthur Wilson filled the second part of the day with lively poetry, movement, theater, and song.  Arthur Wilson is a published poet, playwright, teacher, and Co-Editor/Publisher (Attitude Magazine), and has contributed to theater, education, and community based programs for over forty years.

Many of CPNJ’s students are non-verbal, use wheelchairs, and have multiple disabilities but all of them have an individual voice.  This day was dedicated to making sure that all children may express their voice and talent through the art of theater and music.  “What can I take with me?  I can listen more to the children and realize how much they matter.   I learned that I can try to be more “alive.”  I learned that all children have a voice and want to be heard….it’s our job to help them communicate and connect.”

For more information contact Dena Malarek, Director of Special Populations with Arts Horizons, dena@artshorizons.org or Lindsay Grasso, Training Specialist, Cerebral Palsy of North Jersey lgrasso@cpnj.org

The crash glass frames started at David Brearley last year after the school welcomed Jackie Stack Lagakos as a visiting artist  which sparked funding for their 68′ mosaic wall project. “It was very tough for the kids and us to master the technique in just two afternoon sessions,” said Marsili. The first frames produced were not good enough to sell but “the process got easier and a core group of students emerged who just loved doing it,” Marsili added. Once the students mastered the frame making process, the business class divided into “apprentice-like” teams to market and sell the frames. Over 300 frames were sold for $15 each!

The frames have become very popular among New Jersey artist, teachers and their students. To learn more about bringing this crash glass project to your school, contact:

Click to view slideshow.Pictures from the AENJ Professional Development Workshop

Featured on the tables as centerpieces at our 2011 Annual Gala were African-inspired masks.  The unique masks not only added something special to the event space but they were a great opportunity to showcase student work.

The masks were inspired by a variety of  authentic African tribal masks such as San, Yohure, Senufo, Baule and Ligbi.  Under the direction of teaching artist Donovan Nelson, the students and staff at the LeRoy Neiman Arts Center in turn created their own masks using the different patterns, styles and colors.

The masks became a conversation piece around the room and souvenirs for the guest at the end of the night.  We even have two in our NJ office, reminding us of the successful event and the beautiful work created. The centerpieces the students completed was a big hit this year, so we are all excited to see what our young artist come up with next.