An Introduction to City Lore Education Programs

Education Programs

Education is core to City Lore’s mission of advancing cultural equity. We bring a uniquely cultural and decolonial lens to arts education by centering culturally-rooted arts, including folk and traditional art practitioners, in meaningful ways that connect to young people’s own heritages, identities, experiences, and communities. We aim to bridge the gap between students’ school and home lives by inviting young people to investigate their neighborhoods, families, cultural traditions, and histories and to utilize this firsthand research in their art-making. Our programs draw on the rich cultural traditions and resources of the city’s many neighborhoods, and ethnic, linguistic, and artistic communities to support learning in the arts. We collaborate with traditional and folk artists, as well as contemporary artists whose work explores the themes of personal and community history and identity. 

We design in-school and after school programs, field trips, assembly performances, family engagement programs, and professional development workshops for artists and educators. We offer arts education in Dance & Movement, Filmmaking & Editing, Music, Songwriting & Music Production, Poetry & Literary Arts, Theater, Visual Arts, and Interdisciplinary Arts.
City Lore is unique in drawing on the rich cultural traditions of the city’s many communities to support learning in the arts through themes of community, identity, and history. Core to our approach is using the arts to make connections between young people’s home, school, and community lives.
City Lore’s arts education community is comprised of dedicated staff from the fields of arts, education, and folklore; phenomenal teaching artists who are committed to both young people’s and their own artistic growth; educators and school staff who recognize that arts are vital to education; and our community of young people and their families eager to explore the arts, make meaningful connections, share their wisdom.

The Latest in City Lore Education News

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Summer Rising 2021

This summer, as part of our Summer Rising program, students from P.S./M.S. 200 explored Afro-Cuban Folkloric Traditions. The 6-week intensive program culminated with group singing, dance, and percussion performances led by teaching artists Melvis Santa, Hector Morales, and Rafael Monteagudo.