Metropolitan School for the Arts
P.O.Box 1046SyracuseNY13201-1046
315-475-5414

Program: United In Hope Year Started: 1992 Focus: Multidisciplinary Arts Youth Served: 118 Ages: 5-17 Budget: $18,800 In a community with no community center to serve the neighborhood children, the Episcopal Church and Evangelical African American Church joined forces to create United In Hope, a safe haven in an economically depressed and drug-ridden neighborhood. The churches turned to the Metropolitan School for the Arts to help them provide arts programming. Introductory-level classes in music, theater, dance and visual arts are offered at the Episcopal Church 4 days a week for up to 2 hours after school throughout the school year. Course offerings are as varied as percussion ensemble, explorations in visual arts, creative dramatics, teen theater, introduction to dance, hip-hop and children's chorus. The program draws a constant core of about 30 children, with many others dropping in for specific classes. Instructors work with the children in intensive discipline blocks that result in the staging of performances, street fairs and exhibitions at the end of each 3- to 10-week session. Older students, working as assistants with the younger children, help emphasize the programĚs focus on the process rather than on the product. "The children tell us that they are enjoying the classes and that they feel comfortable in the program. It's a safe and stable place to focus their energies positively," says Executive Director Dee Britton.