Kids make art on the art bus!

The Art Bus was created to provide arts education to youth from low income families with limited or no access to arts programming. ART ASAP, Incorporated built The Art Bus to provide a high quality, hands-on learning experience with the goal of developing artist-mentor relationships with youth participants.

We give under-served youth the opportunity to feel, heal, and create with the hope that young people exposed to poverty, violence, or addiction find an outlet in creative and constructive ways through the art-making process. ART ASAP encourages artistic growth and creative self-expression through exposure to talented teaching artists throughout the school year and summer sessions.

The Art Bus is an 8’ x 40’ MTA bus that has been completely renovated into a 320 square foot art studio that comfortably accommodates 20 students and 6 staff members. The bus has three types of studio stations to adapt to different learning styles. The Art Bus engages participants by making them stakeholders during the project.

Portfolio storage for each participant provides an incentive to return and complete artworks. Attendance is an important part of the responsibility to participate. The registration form will contain a contract that promises the commitment of the students to attend the program consistently, as projects will be ongoing and studio space is limited to 20 youth participants. The excitement of an art show at the end of the project creates a goal to achieve, promotes community engagement, and builds confidence and positive self-esteem.

Specific Goals:

• To achieve consistent attendance throughout the project

• To introduce different media, techniques and processes to convey ideas, experiences and stories through the art-making process

• To create a portfolio of quality art works through a series of specific assignments

• To develop artist-mentor relationships with participants during the 10 week session

• To achieve high attendance rates at the exhibition of kid's work at the conclusion of programming, creating a sense of community pride