Create a New Horizon for ARTS HORIZONS

Thank you for following our campaign and helping us achieve 99% of our goal to help Create a New Horizon for Arts Horizons.

As we close our campaign, we are incredibly grateful for your support to allow us to continue bringing the power of the arts to schools and communities to educate, heal, and unite during this time of crisis and beyond.

We look forward to sharing with you new and exciting developments for AH in the months ahead.
~THANK YOU~

There is one more day to support our campaign - Will you help us reach our goal to ensure that the arts remain an essential part of our school, family, and community life:

• To ensure that quality arts programs are available as a means to express pain, healing, and hope…
• To ensure that professional artists reach some of our most vulnerable populations in hospital schools and senior communities…
• To ensure that professional artists can reach the next generation of creative leaders for social change and innovation…

Your support helps us keep essential programming like this Professional Development for teachers - The Collaborative Mural for Mental Health. On Tuesday, November 3rd, the West New York (NJ) Public School District Art Teachers gathered for a full-day Professional Development (PD) virtual workshop, entitled “The Collaborative Mural,” conducted by Arts Horizons Teaching Artist Michele Baldwin. Michele said it was “so much fun to engage the teachers,” who also enjoyed the experience. Throughout the day, the K-12 Art Teachers got the opportunity to actually DO art, something every artist enjoys. They identified and explored a similar theme – mental health, then worked as a whole, in pairs, and individually, to create the beautiful mural.

The collaborative mural project allowed the group of educators to respond and reflect upon issues of mental health specific to this period of pandemic – for both educators and students alike. How may we utilize the arts to combat social isolation and support healthy social relationships? How may the arts support development of new coping mechanisms to manage emotional, family and school/work related challenges? How can educators most effectively guide opportunities for creative expressions and provide healthy forum to process these difficult times like we are experiencing now? The collaborative mural project allowed the group of educators to participate in this very process and develop methodology and curriculum for our youth.

With only one week left, we are nearly 75% towards our goal to CREATE A NEW HORIZON FOR ARTS HORIZONS. This period since our campaign launch on November 1st has been one of creative problem solving where the Arts Horizons team meets the call to share expressions of artistry, culture, tradition, healing and shared creative experiences amidst a global pandemic. We are grateful for our school and community partners with whom we collaborate to combat social isolation and enhance learning through the arts. We are grateful for our artist participants who will be the next generation of creative leaders for social change and innovation. As we weather through the highs and lows of our 42nd year, we are grateful for YOU for following and supporting our campaign.

With only one week left, won’t you consider helping Arts Horizons continue to bring the power of the arts to schools and communities to educate, heal, and unite during this time of crisis? Your help to spread the message or donate in ANY amount is truly appreciated. We may currently see one another through tiny screens, but our team carries huge vision, heart, place for community and hope in these times. Thank you to all of our friends, fans and supporters.

On Giving Tuesday, December 1st, 2020, Arts Horizons is launching our first online auction with @charitybuzz. Mark your calendars.

#GivingTuesday is a global generosity movement unleashing the power of the people to transform their communities and the world.

There are so many ways to participate and show your support. Following our story and our social media can help spread the news of our work, mission, and exceptional team of artists. You may have a related skill, contribution or connection that can build our collaborative network. You can nurture artistry within your own creative habits or in that of another. You may have the means and desire to donate to support our work. Our work arts-in-education for people of all ages and abilities - this is work built on a foundation of connection, shared experience, and creative collaboration. We thank you for joining.

As we approach this holiday season this 2020, Arts Horizons takes this moment to reflect on the many shifts we have all weathered this year. This has been a year of creative problem solving where artists have met the call to share expressions of artistry, culture, tradition, healing and shared creative experiences amidst a global pandemic. We are grateful for our school and community partners with whom we collaborate to combat social isolation and enhance learning through the arts. As we weather through the highs and lows of our 42nd year, we are grateful for our artist participants who will be the next generation of creative leaders for social change and innovation. We may currently see one another through tiny screens, but our team carries huge vision, heart, place for community and hope in these times. From our family to yours, we wish you a safe and healthy holiday season.

Did you know that decathlete and Olympic gold medalist, Dan O'Brien, was a trumpet player, just like Arts Horizons' founder John Devol? This week, Dan shared his support of Arts Horizons' mission by highlighting an image of himself playing trumpet from 1982. Dan shares that, "I don’t know where I would be today without that courage. Music as a kid gave me the confidence to pursue all of my dreams."

While Arts Horizons was founded in 1978, the year of Dan's photograph, 1982, was actually the year of our incorporation as a non-profit organization! For 42 years, we have made the arts an essential component of education where students develop courage, confidence, focus, adaptability, creative problem solving, and are encouraged to push boundaries like that of an Olympian!

Arts Horizons Teaching Artist Aaron "SpazeCraft" Lazansky-Olivias echoed this sentiment. "That's a testimony to all I work for in this field. I don't care if a kid becomes the next Picasso of Joan Mitchell, nor the next Dr. Dre or Michael Jackson, my hope is that through the exploration of the arts, kids see their true potential in ALL they do in life. That is the truest reward I can get from doing this work, that I've helped another to open their book and start writing their story."

Thank you to Dan for pledging your support of the arts. Thank you to our teaching artists for your service.

Arts Horizons asks for your support to help share our message, or donate in any amount, to help Arts Horizons bring professional teaching artists into virtual classrooms to instill confidence in our youth to pursue all of their dreams. Thank you for your help to CREATE A NEW HORIZON FOR ARTS HORIZONS.

When you support Arts Horizons you bolster the future of our signature programs for special education and hospital school programs. Some of our most marginalized students and families will have the opportunity to create, cope and heal through the arts under the artistic direction of professional teaching artists. Our programs for special education and hospital school’s use interactive music and visual art workshops to promote rehabilitation, learning and cultural experiences for special needs students in an arts-rich, safe, creative, and emotionally uplifting environment. The program merges the fields of art, healthcare, and academics, to create a space of comprehensive education, healing and expression for special needs students with extended, and in some cases residential, hospital stays.

For example, this November we began the virtual-relaunch of programs with hospital schools at Sunshine Childrens Home in Westchester. This program was paused last year during the pandemic and with your help, we can make sure this program continues. In the words of participating educators, "Tira has provided a creative, interactive, and personalized music program for our students. Her collaboration with each teacher to address classroom themes, student preferences, and student goals was an invaluable part of the process. Her videos are both fun and instructional; our students can't get enough of them!”

Thank you to everyone who helped make the first week of our campaign a success! We raised over $5,000 which takes us over 20% towards our goal to help CREATE A NEW HORIZON FOR ARTS HORIZONS.

Your support helps us bring master teaching artists like Mr. Mansa K. Mussa to bring his expertise and talent to lead signature programs for special education, hospital schools and senior living facilities. Mansa and our team of professional artists are role models, respected educators and mentors who spark creativity in our youth who, in turn, will become the next generation of creative leaders for social change and innovation.

View our new video message from Mansa who has been cultivating a new generation of artists and leaders with AH for over 24 years through the power of the arts.

Arts Horizons’ virtual arts education programs bring the power of the arts back to our communities in a safe and responsible way! Our virtual live performances and workshops take our students on a journey through so many different artistic mediums and cultural traditions. We are pleased to share with you a recent livestream assembly at Drexel Avenue School in Westbury, NY.

Ms. Grisel Pren, Calpulli’s Associate Artistic Director, led the students through interactive dance routines and shared performance reels of folkloric dances to showcase the fascinating world of Mexico’s diverse cultures and artistic traditions. Gregg Brenner from Drexel Avenue School Music department shared: “The performance by Viva Mexico was fantastic! Our students at Drexel Avenue School enjoyed the lively interactive portion of the show. The dances were very engaging and our students learned a lot about different regions and cultures in Mexico. It was a virtual performance that our students will never forget!” #artsareessential #artsednow #newhorizonforah

https://artshorizons.wordpress.com/2020/11/05/it-was-a-virtual-performance-that-our-students-will-never-forget/