Artists Space

Education

Expanded Art Ideas, Artists Space's arts in education program, encourages both mainstream and special education students in New York City’s public schools to develop a personal artistic voice and to utilize their individual creative capacities by providing them with the skills to communicate, document, and publicly exhibit their innovations and talents. EAI's six core programs: Portfolio Development, Photo Club, Art and Literacy: Poetry, Threads of History, Listening to the LES, and Artists in/Ed Space—augment middle and high school classroom curricula in the visual and language arts. Since its inception, the program has closely adhered to New York State standards for teaching visual arts and most recently with New York City’s Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Arts: Visual Arts Benchmarks. Alongside our core programs, we produce publications and exhibitions of student work, and guide students through applications for Scholastic Awards and entry into specialized arts high schools.

Many accomplished artists and poets have added valuable content and program innovations to our core courses. Two of these projects were initiated at New York's Thread Waxing Space in 1994 under the direction of Ellen Salpeter, Director, Chrysanne Stathacos, Educator and Director of Education, and Gloria Holwerda-Williams, Senior Educator. In June 2001, Chrysanne Stathacos joined Artists Space as its Director of Education and brought Expanded Arts Ideas to Artists Space under the direction of Barbara Hunt McLanahan. We would like to acknowledge the work of the following educators who have helped to shape these projects over the years:

Chrysanne Stathacos
Gloria Holwerda-Williams
Miriam Schaer
Nancy Friedman
Stefania Heim
Joy Episalla
Annie Bien
Rafael Sanchez
Lauren Lesko
Jennifer Pond
Octavius Neveux
Ester Partegas
A Constructed World (Geoff Lowe and Jacqueline Riva)
Sara Jane Stoner
Marco Vera / Mexicali Rose
Kate Temple
Claudia Sohrens
Sophie Green
Mary Simpson
Susan Hamburger
Stephanie Costello
Robert Sember
Esperanza Cortes
Desirée Alvarez
Nia Nottage
Rebecca Teich
Sonya Derman

Expanded Art Ideas is supported by The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation; NYU Community Fund; The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; The New York City Department of Education; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and to the Friends of Artists Space Expanded Art Ideas program.

WIth special thanks to all the students, teachers and school administrators for their ongoing dedication. Thank you to our special friends and supporters of Artists Space’s Expanded Art Ideas program.