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The Union Square Arts Award recognizes of the important and leadership role played by arts and culture in creating educational opportunities, building community and promoting social change. Its purpose is to support creative and innovative programs that benefit youth and families in low-income communities throughout New York City. All artistic disciplines - dance, theater, music, visual arts, film, media arts and creative writing- are eligible. The goal is to identify arts projects and organizations making a significant impact and contribution to the lives of participants and their communities.


ARTS AWARDEES
2007 UNION SQUARE ARTS AWARDEES

Alwan for the Arts
Alwan promotes the diverse cultures of the Arab community in New York City. Its wide-ranging programming showcases musical and theatrical performances, film festivals and screenings, book signings, language and literature classes that take place at its space in lower Manhattan. Alwan is dedicated to educating and advancing mutual understanding between the Middle Eastern community and the general public, promoting cross-cultural exchanges and serving the Arab population living in the city.
www.alwanforthearts.org

Calpulli Mexican Dance Company
Calpulli is dedicated to presenting the rich heritage of Mexican culture. It teaches and produces dance-based programming incorporating music and theatre interpreted through its unique artistic vision. It presents performances, provides workshops, educational programming, and organizes community cultural events. Calpulli seeks to enrich the quality of Mexican traditional dance, to make it relevant to contemporary life in New York City, and to promote the active participation of Mexican immigrants and their families.
www.calpullidance.org/

Children's PressLine
Children's PressLine is dedicated to ensuring that young people grow up as active participants in civic society and that they reflect their experiences on public policy issues. Through journalism, CPL brings a youth perspective to the forefront of local and national issues. Using an oral journalism process facilitates the participation of youth of all ages and literacy levels. This methodology enables children to be trained quickly and easily and empowers them with their work and in the media.
www.cplmedia.org

City at Peace - NY
City at Peace-NY uses the performing arts to empower teenagers to create safe, healthy, peaceful lives and communities, developing the next generation of community leaders. CP-NY engages diverse youth in an intense, year-long, youth-led program in which they explore and address conflicts they encounter on a daily basis. They write, produce and perform an original musical about their lives and ideas for a better world and participate in community action projects to impact on issues of concern.
www.cpnational.org/ny

Ghetto Film School
Ghetto Film School provides community-based cinema arts education, film and video production, career development and distribution services to aspiring filmmakers 14 to 21 years old. Programs are grounded in three principles: 1) assets-based teaching develops strengths while building skills and confidence to excel at new challenges; 2) cinemas studies provides classic and contemporary film concepts and language to all production work; and 3) distribution platforms celebrate students and their work.
www.ghettofilm.org

 

Groove With Me
Located in East Harlem, Groove With Me offers free dance classes and performance opportunities to girls and young women, ages 4 to 18 years old, to build leadership skills, pride, self-confidence, creativity, joy, and the discipline needed to grow into strong and successful women. Classes are guided by the understanding that all youth need safety and structure, a sense of belonging, and opportunities for contribution.
www.groovewithme.org

Hip-Hop Association
Recognizing the pervasive and negative influence of commercial hip-hop, the Hip-Hop Association (H2A) was founded in 2002 to engage young people in positive values promoted by hip-hop at its genesis. H2A is a community-building organization committed to hip-hop culture as a tool to facilitate critical thinking, build unity and foster social change. It achieves this goal through education, multi-media, film, performing arts, technology, and leadership development programs for young people, educators, parents and community members.
www.hiphopassociation.org

Hip-Hop Theater Festival
Since 2000 the Hip-Hop Theater Festival (HHTF) has grown into one of the most influential outlets showcasing hip-hop performing arts in the country. HHTF is dedicated to creating innovative work using the hip-hop aesthetic; producing and presenting artists whose work addresses socio-political issues; and serving young, urban communities through outreach and education that celebrates contemporary language and culture. HHTF seeks to foster gathering places, real and virtual, for arts and community expression.
www.hiphoptheaterfest.org

louderARTS Project
The louderARTSProject develops constructive and challenging spaces for artists to create, critique, present, and teach poetry. It seeks to create a literary and artistic environment for both artists and audience; to sponsor literary arts programming in underserved communities; to encourage artistic experimentation and growth; to foster a deeper understanding of the oral and literary traditions that underlie today's poetry; and to work in partnership with other organizations to maximize the strengths and expertise of each.
www.louderarts.com

MoCADA
The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) is a unique museum devoted to utilizing the visual arts as a medium to address, discuss, debate and resolve contemporary social, political and economic issues that disproportionately affect people of the African Diaspora. Through the creation of innovative exhibitions, public programs, community outreach initiatives, educational interactive tours, MoCADA aims to give a more accurate portrayal of the historic, artistic and cultural contributions of people of African descent.
www.mocada.org