ArtistYear

Meet ArtistYear AmeriCorps Fellows!

This school year, 57 Fellows are serving as teaching-artists to 15,000 students in low-income schools across Philadelphia, New York City, and rural Colorado!

Actor Walker Zupan is serving The Borough of Queens, NY.

Musician Rosalie Avery is serving Colorado.

Visual Artist Taylor Hickman is serving Philadelphia.

4 million children in the U.S. don't have arts education.

Want to help change this? Together, we can close the Arts Education Gap via a National Service Arts Corps!

Give now

Crystal's Service Year in Queens

Crystal Simon takes us inside her service year at Lighthouse Elementary in Queens NYC

“When my students had a rough day, I encouraged them to take it out on the dance floor, in acting class, or in our school play. The result? My students discovered that they have a voice, and their opinions and feelings matter.” Crystal Simon, actor and dancer, ArtistYear '18

Enabling Artists to Serve Our Country as Teaching Artists

ArtistYear—an organization born out of the traditions of service, dedication to artistic excellence, and respect, obligation, and empathy towards our fellow citizens—is the first National AmeriCorps program for artists to dedicate a year of service to our nation.

ArtistYear’s mission is to address the Arts Education Gap by ensuring that every underserved student in America has arts education through a National Service Arts Corps. We do so by developing, supporting and placing exceptional Fellows – recent higher-education arts graduates across all disciplines (including actors, creative writers, dancers, filmmakers, musicians, visual artists) – as full-time teaching artists at low-income schools.

This innovative strategy serves not only to significantly bolster arts education for underserved youth, with all its attendant benefits, it also enhances the capacity of schools, benefits the larger community, and underscores the importance of service for the next generation of artists and arts educators.

Guitar Club with ArtistYear AmeriCorps Fellow Will Brobston!

A Day in the Life ...

ArtistYear AmeriCorps Fellows share snapshots from the field!

“My experience with [ArtistYear Fellow] Ms. Francois was the best in my life. I’m saying this because she’s never given up on us. She comes up with the most fun activities to help us get out of our shells. I’ll never forget her.””

“ArtistYear began as an idea among some of the world’s top performing artists — Yo-Yo Ma, Damian Woetzel, Margo Drakos, among others — to marry the power of national service with artistic talent. This big idea is engaging young people through the arts in learning the habits of citizenship — leadership, discipline, empathy and collaborative problem-solving — through a common language and enterprise. To no one’s surprise, ArtistYear has taken off and is expanding in Philadelphia, Colorado, and New York City.”

“We believe that the collaboration of ArtistYear AmeriCorps Fellows with certified arts educators for the delivery of instruction will result not only in growth of the school's programs and arts implementation, but growth of all of the individuals involved. ArtistYear's meticulous approach to matching ArtistYear AmeriCorps members with schools and educators will provide foundations for program growth that can live well beyond the member's year of service.”

“Every day we witness the power of the arts to transform children’s lives and are proud to partner with ArtistYear in extending that experience to more who cannot easily access this experience. The ArtistYear AmeriCorps Fellows joining us here bring to this community both the talent and the intention to make children’s lives better through art. ”

“The collaboration of ArtistYear Fellows with certified arts educators and teachers for the delivery of instruction results not only in growth of the school's programs and arts implementation, but growth of all individuals involved! ”