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Reaching Inner-City Youngsters through the Arts

In the winter and spring of 1998–99, a team of artists-in-residence created an interdisciplinary program combining performing and visual arts at an inner-city school in Newark, New Jersey. Drama specialist Leslie Fanelli and creative art therapist Nina Klippel were chosen by Arts Horizons, an organization that brings arts to public schools in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, to work with third-graders in a remedial after-school program. Participating as guest artists during the term were a dancer/choreographer and a musician who works with gourd instruments. The program was part of an Arts Horizons initiative known as “Creative Alternatives for Youth at Risk” (CAYR) and was funded by the Prudential Foundation and the Essex County (NJ) Youth Services Commission. The Arts Horizons mandate and mission were to improve the students' social behaviors and increase their engagement in learning activities. But the arts collaboration had more far-reaching effects. This is the story, in part, as told by the authors: