Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education
Program: Access to Arts
Area of Work: Arts
Grant Purpose: General Support
Overview
The mission of the Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education is to create a safe and welcoming community, enriching and uplifting youth and families toward success through shared cultural, art and educational experiences and programs. Founded in East Harlem, but now located in the Bronx, Casita Maria primarily serves young people, their families, and the wider community in in Hunts Point and the South Bronx, their families, and the wider community.
Grant
Purpose: To support core youth arts programs and operations.
The Illumination Fund supports core youth arts programs, including:
- Casita Maria’s after-school and summer Creative Youth Development (CYD) programming, which engages 1,000 youth from kindergarten to high school through an arts education curriculum integrated with positive youth development principles to stimulate academic success, critical thinking, and arts mastery.
- Casita Maria further promotes the artistic traditions of the South Bronx, and inspires young people through presentations of cutting-edge art through their in-house gallery, public performances, mural production, and the South Bronx Culture Trail Festival, a month-long celebration of Bronx art and artists.
