The Arts Administration Program (ARAD) recently organized a Holiday Service Project. It was a warm time for faculty, students, staff, and alumni to join together and help to those in need during the winter holidays. We want to share the results of our fundraiser, and express our gratitude to everyone who contributed their time, resources, and talent to making this event a success, especially to our colleagues in Alumni Relations.

With generous donations from Blick’s Harlem store, Da Vinci Art Supply, Artist and Craftsman, Jerry’s Palette Shop, and private contributors, ARAD created 40 gift bags for children and an additional 20 more for mothers served by Art Start, a non-profit organization that brings arts programming to at-risk youth who live in city shelters, on the streets, are involved in court cases, or surviving with parents in crisis. In addition to the gift bags, we are also able to provide several large boxes of art materials to Art Start.

Our annual fundraiser also helped to raise enough funds, with a contribution from the ARAD program, for Groove with Me to purchase a new water fountain for their studio. Groove with Me is a dance studio that offers free classes to girls in Harlem and a safe and stable environment in which express themselves and discover their capacities.

We are also excited to share that a group of our first-year students – Jordan Carter, Peter Huang, Allason Leitz, and Angelica Tran – led an interactive session about the field of arts administration at the Groove with Me studio.

Thank you again to our sponsors for making such generous contributions and to the ARAD Community for helping make this holiday season shine brighter for so many children and their families!