Afterschool Arts Outreach Annual Student Exhibition
This exhibition features works of art created by children and teens, ages 6 to 18, who participate in the Norton Museum of Art’s Afterschool Arts Outreach (AAO) program, in partnership with the Parks and Recreation Department hosted at Gaines Park, the Farmworker Coordinating Council, Highridge Family Center, Florence de George Boys and Girls Club, Max M. Fisher Boys and Girls Club, PACE Center for Girls, the Police Athletic League, and Salvation Army Northwest Community Center. This long-running community arts program, founded in 1991, sustains partnerships by building relationships with eight unique neighborhoods, from Riviera Beach to Lake Worth. Afterschool Arts Outreach provides free teaching artists, supplies, project curricula and field trips to approximately 700 youth per year.
Throughout the year, Norton teaching artists design art lessons that foster creativity and stimulate critical thinking skills while helping students develop self-efficacy. With their teachers’ encouragement, students ventured forth to create original works of art, exploring sculpture, batik, printmaking, animation, and mixed-media collage among other projects and media.
Pace Center For Girls
"Through its partnership with Pace Center for Girls, Palm Beach, the Norton Museum of Art provides at-risk girls a creative outlet to release emotional trauma through artistic engagement. Guided by Norton’s teaching artist Ingrid Sanchez, the girls at Pace Palm Beach have the opportunity to explore different art techniques and apply them to projects that promote positive self-expression and confidence-building."
-Nicole Horton, Program Director
Gaines Park
“The Afterschool Arts Outreach program (formerly PACE) has provided knowledge of different forms of cultural arts, artistic expressions and the introduction to talented artists. Talented artists that have provided our youth with knowledge of entrepreneurship and how to artistically express feelings to encourage social change. We are extremely grateful for the 20+ years of partnership with the Norton Museum of Art.”
- Marvelous Washington, Campus Manager Gaines Park Community center
West Palm Beach Police Athletic League
“We are grateful for the 15+ years of partnership with the Norton. The community arts program has given our youth the opportunity to create art in all forms. These experiences have opened the minds of our youth and given them the ability to express themselves artistically.”
-Jonathan Taylor, Director for West Palm Beach Police Athletic League
Florence De George Boys & Girls Club and Max M. Fisher Boys & Girls Club
“The Norton community arts partnership provides our students a plethora of opportunities to encounter, appreciate and create art, and actively reprioritizes the experience of art-making as a valuable undertaking and potential career path.”
-Casandra Tanenbaum, Cultural Art Coordinator for BGC of Palm Beach County
Highridge Family Center
“I am a strong supporter of the Norton Museum of Art and its educational and outreach programming having seen its effects firsthand as a Residential Counseling Coordinator for Palm Beach County’s Youth Services Department’s Highridge Family Center. Highridge is a residential treatment program for at risk youth 11-16 years old. Norton Museum’s art classes provide a safe setting for our youth to express their emotions, feelings, and thoughts via art. In addition, the Program builds the youth’s self-confidence and self-expression skills. Lastly, the Museum’s Afterschool Arts Outreach programming offers free transportation and tours at the Museum. It is an invaluable experience for our students, many of whom visit a Museum for the first time through the program.”
-Heli Pandini, LMHC, Residential Counseling Coordinator, Highridge Family Center
Salvation Army Northwest Community Center
Farmworker Coordinating Council
“A very important part of our mission at Farmworker is to help the children of farmworkers through education in order to have better lives. Norton's art classes have contributed greatly to the education of these children. It has helped them explore the world in a different way. When the class starts, I see color, textures, materials. When the class ends, I see how these colors, textures and materials become something else. Something they created. But the most important aspect of all is that I have seen these children happy, communicating with each other, having a sense of accomplishment individually, sometimes as a team, simply expressing themselves without judgment, creating things they cannot yet verbalize, lowering stress levels, focusing on their creation. Traveling with their minds in a special way. “
-Patricia Corredor, Education Coordinator at Farmworker Coordinating Council
Afterschool Arts Outreach at the Police Athletic League, Highridge Family Center, and Farmworker Coordinating Council of Palm Beach County was made possible by the generosity of the Ellen & Ronald Block Family Foundation.
Afterschool Arts Outreach at the Florence A. De George Boys and Girls Club was made possible by the generosity of Jane Carroll and Leo Arnaboldi.
Afterschool Arts Outreach at the Gaines Park Community Center was made possible by the generosity of The Rosenberg Ebin Family Foundation.
Afterschool Arts Outreach at the PACE Center for Girls was made possible by the generosity of the Scaife Family Foundation.
Afterschool Arts Outreach at the Salvation Army Northwest Community Center was made possible by the generosity of Irene and Jim Karp.
Afterschool Arts Outreach was also made possible by the generosity of The Jim Moran Foundation and Mr. and Mrs. Jason T. Kalisman, with additional support provided by The Christina Orr-Cahall Endowment for Community Outreach.