Our Work

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. 

Our Offerings

City Lore’s education programs take place primarily in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, serving students and educators in grades Pre-K-12, including District 75 schools. We proudly reach over 11,000 students each year. 

We offer arts education in Dance, Filmmaking & Editing, Music, Songwriting & Music Production, Poetry & Literary Arts, Theater, Visual Arts, and Interdisciplinary Arts. We align our programs to support the New York State Learning Standards for the Arts, the New York City Blueprint for the Arts, and when appropriate, the Common Core State Standards. The high quality of our education work was recognized in 2016 with the Isidore Starr Award for Civic Engagement by the National Association of Social Studies Teachers. A few years earlier, our work was featured in Harvard University’s The Qualities of Quality: Excellence in Arts Education and How To Achieve It

Our offerings include: