Welcome to the ArtPeace website. We are glad to have you visit us here online. Please take a peek around to get to know us a little better. We hope something sparks your interest!

Nilaja Sun’s nationally-acclaimed, award-winning one-woman show, No Child…,at the Geva Nextstage starring local teaching artist, poet and actress, Reenah Golden and Directed by Queen GodIs was a complete success. Click Here for more information.

ArtPeace is now officially 5 years old!! It’s been 5 yrs since we were incorporated and we are in YEAR 5 of our flagship ArtPeace Young Entrepreneur Program which was bigger than ever this summer serving youth from throughout Monroe County, including the Teen Treatment Court in Monroe County, Hillside Work Scholarship Program and students in summer school.  

Our youth (age 14-20) created businesses together in graphic design, culinary arts, web development, photography, filmmaking, drumming and drum building, animation, visual arts, t-shirt making, theatre, literary arts/writing, comedy, wordsmithing, lyric writing, music and sound recording, dance, movement and fitness.

ArtPeace is excited and proud to be an affiliate of national The Possibility Project – the-possibility-project.org (formerly City at Peace), a highly successful international youth development program that is changing lives and communities. Check out all the impressive data that shows the success of this excellent program.

The kids in this program are so fresh, real and upbeat. They are learning how to resolve conflicts peacefully, how to be a team and real ways to make change in this city.
After the urging of a persistent Sara Hughes, managing director of The Possibility Project-Rochester, I saw the show in NYC a few years ago, got hooked and was pleased that ArtPeace could bring the mission-aligned program on board. Sara Hughes is one of the most determined people I have ever met! She is fiercely devoted to The Possibility Project-Rochester, and what it does for young people and the community. This is the culmination of her seven-year quest to bring it to Rochester. We look forward to many years to come of The Possibility Project-Rochester!

Good year at ArtPeace@East with a final showcase that brought lots of parents, teachers and other community support!

“May you live in interesting times…” goes the ancient Chinese proverb. Well, we certainly do, don’t we?! Just spend a day with us at East High School to see how interesting it can be within the current educational system that is in need of reform.

ArtPeace@East is an innovative small learning community within East High School (largest school in Rochester with 2000+ students) for 130 7th & 8th graders. An interdisciplinary team of teaching artists, teachers, social workers and leaders work together to design curriculum to teach all academic subjects in ways that align with the NY State standards through the use of ARTS and TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION (using music, digital arts, visual arts and dance/movement/theatre) and hands-on “project-based learning” that includes cultural study trips in the community. Students demonstrate their learning in showcases every 10 weeks.

Thank You to all who came out to the ArtPeace Shakedown at the Village Gate May 1-3! Check out the Shakedown site for great photos and more information at http://shakedown.artpeace.info/index.htm. Sue Hollister, the event’s founder and coordinator, brings her tireless determination and love for kids & art to make the Shakedown a palpably energized experience. Click here for a review, compliments of Generation News.

It is an impressive show of over 580 works of visual art by over 500 young artists from 25 schools taught by 46 art teachers from throughout Monroe County. There were amazing music and poetry slam performances too and the annual “Empty Bowls” project – student-created pottery bowls auctioned for Open Door Mission.

ArtPeace South continues its Award-Winning (2007 New York State “Creative Ticket” Award Recipient for “Excellence in Arts-in-Education”) arts integration residencies in the Southern Tier / Finger Lakes Region, under the strong leadership of Martha Evans. We serve Watkins Glen Central School District (K-12), Elmira Central Schools (K-12) and work with Corning Museum of Glass, Arnot Art Museum, BOCES and Colgate University.
Check out ArtPeace Action! News and go to our Gallery to see some photos from past programs.

At ArtPeace, we believe all things are possible if you do what you love and love what you do. We want to encourage people to fulfill their Soul purpose in life, work hard, be good and DO good!

Thanks for your continued support of ArtPeace!

• ArtPeace@East 7th & 8th Grade Final Showcase - “Change Through Perserverence” – East High School Auditorium, Wed, June 10, 7-9pm, 1801 East Main Street (near Culver) in Rochester, New York. FREE! Contact Kris Rapp for more info – kris@artpeace.org; 585-802-2293.
  
  Come check out:  hip hop American History songs, academic board games, a video that teaches math through chant and imagery, AP@E drum line, clay figures of 19th Century westward movement, food chain nesting containers, collages, AP@E chorus, math chant song and dance, scenes and movement from My Brother Sam Is Dead and more.
  
  *ArtPeace@East, an alternative school program through the Rochester City School District, School educates 7th and 8th grade students at East High School, is going into year 3. In this program, teaching artists work together with classroom teachers to create and implement interdisciplinary, arts and technology integrated lessons.
  Thank You to Dana Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, New York State Contracts for Excellence, Rochester City School District and East High School.
  
  
• ArtPeace is actively looking for a permanent home in the City of Rochester and more partners to create a Center for Literacy & Creativity Fitness – featuring opportunities for young people and adults to explore their creative selves, build their bodies and extend their literacy in a myriad of ways (financial, technological, visual, media, alphabetic, health & body, etc). Our hope is to house our entrepreneurial and arts-based programs, an arts & technology integration school for social justice and an incubator for creative businesses, in addition to workshops, classes, trainings and fun events. DONATE toward ArtPeace Capital Fund to make this dream reality!
  
  
• Look for XFit Club – a new CrossFit-style fitness, nutrition and wellness program for youth (13-19), taught by Certified CrossFit, Nutrition Coach and Brazilian Jujitsu trainers. ArtPeace believes that recreation, fun and body movement is as important as using the mind and creativity! Overall fitness and healthy eating is the goal!
  
  
• ArtPeaceSouth is continuing to build momentum in the Southern Tier to serve students in schools from Livingston County across to the Finger Lakes Region, headed up by Marty Evans, Southern Tier Director and Glenn McClure, Arts Integration Director for ArtPeace. Kristin Rapp, ArtPeace Executive Director, says “we are excited to be serving more kids in rural areas that often miss out on arts and cultural opportunities. We can bring talented teaching artists and new technology to them to enliven their educational and life experiences! Having grown up in Dansville, NY, this expansion is close to my heart.”
  
  
• ArtPeace has been represented at several state-wide conferences recently - Common Ground Arts-in-Education conference and the New York State Empire State Partnerships Summer Seminar, where we present our innovative arts & technology integration work. We are also active on the Rochester Regional School Planning Committee (a project of former Supt. William Cala and Nazareth College), Committee for Common Sense Education, Western New York Regional Leadership & Learning Network (for arts Integrated organizations), Youth Quality Services Council and a new Arts-in-Education consortium.
  
  
• ArtPeace plans to bring back Nilaja Sun’s one-woman play NO CHILD, featuring Reenah Golden, to Rochester in 2010, in partnership with Committee for Common Sense Education, Western New York Regional Learning & Leadership Network, Young Audiences and Nazareth College. NO CHILD is a real to life show about teaching arts and what it is really like in urban school settings in an era of “No Child Left Behind…”