national service for citizen-artists. creative expression for vital minds.

We're bringing arts learning out of the classroom and into homes everywhere.

“Times of crisis summon our best instinct to serve one another. ArtistYear awakens that instinct through arts education and reminds all Americans of our common humanity.” John Bridgeland, Vice Chairman of The Service Year Alliance and former Director of White House Domestic Policy Council

Explore 11 Virtual Arts Learning Programs

By Fellows for students everywhere.

School of Sketch

UnderCover

Bite-Sized Art History

ArtistYear is in Session on #CampYouTube

Join us to create comic strips, sketchbooks, rainbows, collages, and more while learning about art history too -- all with items around your home!
Create #WithMe!

ArtistYear Receives $1.5 Million in Funding via AmeriCorps

ArtistYear is awarded $1.5 Million over three-years to enable 81 teaching-artists to bring 137,000 hours of arts instruction to 25,000 low-income youth, twice per-week, across four locations.
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ArtistYear Immediately Repositions its AmeriCorps Members to offer Virtual Arts Learning.

ArtistYear Partners with School Districts and the Articulate Show with Jim Cotter to offer At-Home Arts Learning with YouTube.
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Crystal takes us inside her service year at Lighthouse Elementary in Queens, NY

“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

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!
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Artists Serving Our Nation as Teaching Artists

ArtistYear is the first National AmeriCorps program for artists to dedicate a year of service to our nation.

ArtistYear’s mission is to address our nation’s Arts Education Gap by ensuring that every underserved student 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 – as full-time teaching artists at low-income schools.

This innovative strategy significantly bolsters arts education for our most nation’s most vulnerable youth, with all its attendant benefits, while improving student academic and socio-emotional development, enhancing school climate and capacity, benefiting the larger community, and developing a new generation of Citizen- Artists steeped in national service.

ArtistYear Fellows Create Arts Learning Programs!
Online Learning Online Learning

A Day in the Life ...

ArtistYear AmeriCorps Fellows share snapshots from the field!

“More than anything, recent graduates are looking for altruistic causes with a living wage that they can fully devote themselves selves to. A year of national service provides that sense of purpose. My peers and I embarked on this year of service because we believe that the Arts are an essential part of any healthy life.”

“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 gets us out of our shells. I’ll never forget her.””

“Times of crisis summon our best instinct to serve one another. ArtistYear awakens that instinct through arts education and reminds all Americans of our common humanity.”

“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 pandemic shocks to U.S. schooling have revealed two hard truths—inequitable access to high-quality online instruction for underserved students, and that most online instruction is not engaging, ignoring its young people's interests. Enter ArtistYear and its Fellows to explode with imaginative solutions to both failings. If you ever expected that young teaching artists might have the brightest ideas for transitioning to online learning—you don't know how right you were.”

With Gratitude to Our Sponsors & Partners

ArtistYear Partners with YouTube Learning, School Districts, and Articulate to offer At-Home Arts Learning.

ArtistYear has redeployed its teaching-artist Fellows in response to the pandemic, to bring arts learning out of closed low-income schools and into homes of students across our nation.