The Center of Contemporary Arts (COCA) is a partner in Arts Connection, an artist-initiated project to involve neighborhood children from public housing projects in arts projects. COCA's partners, artists and art and social service agencies, create a community web that fosters creativity and self-confidence. Artists design their programs in consultation with the partners in preparation for a year-round schedule of classes. A variety of classes meet in the summer, one to three times a week, and in the fall, on Saturdays and after school 1 to 2 days a week. Past projects include planning a garden and creating scarecrows based on masks from diverse cultures. A recent annual exhibition at the COCA gallery resulted in the sale of the older participants' portraits of themselves and others, as well as an invitation to install posters made from the portraits in city bus shelters. During the exhibition, one of the artists and a student led a workshop to demonstrate how the portraits were created. "The program has caused community agencies to collaborate in ways they never have before," says Director of Visual Arts Kathryn Adamchick. "And students who had no interest in the arts are developing self-esteem and seeing art as a vehicle for expression."