About DreamYard

Program

DreamYard artists teach collaboratively through YEAR-LONG RESIDENCIES with classroom teachers twice/week for instruction and once/week for planning sessions from September through May. DreamYard artists spend a total of 72 teaching days with their students and conduct 36 planning sessions with their teacher partner.

THE ACTION PROJECT is a four-year arts and civic engagement program for teenagers living in the Bronx. The mission of The ACTION Project is to use the arts to develop young people as effective social leaders and active civic participants in their communities. We work with young people to develop powerful strategies to respond to the issues that are most important to them in their communities. Each year of this four-year program takes place during the out of school hours, over 25 Saturday sessions and a five-week, intensive summer session. ACTION participants develop a strong foundation of artistic skills and create art works designed to educate, advocate, and/or outreach.

DreamYard runs the BRONX POETRY SLAM in collaboration with Region 1 and Fordham University. The North Bronx Poetry Slam places poets at middle and elementary schools for 10-week residencies. Schools compete with one another through video conferencing and are scored by a panel of student and adult judges at Fordham University. The poetry slam combines the writing of original poetry, the art of performance and the use of video conferencing technology to promote standards based literacy, communication and the use of technology.

The AFTER SCHOOL ARTS COMPANY offers high-quality, intensive classes in theater, musical theater writing and performance, costume and set design/ visual arts portfolio development, dance, percussion, classical guitar ensemble, chorus, poetry writing and performance/poetry based theater. Arts Company programs run workshops four days a week and host twice yearly festivals of student work in schools and at community sites such as Lehman College; these events bring together families, students, and schools to celebrate student achievement.

DreamYard offers PROFESSIONAL PERFORMANCE AND EXHIBITION OPPORTUNITIES that present and celebrate high quality student artwork. Existing sites include: Lehman College, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Hostos Community College, Sotheby's, the Juilliard School, and Scholastic, Inc., the Point DreamYard leads year round PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT workshops at every institution where we work to develop unique curriculum, specific to the needs of the collaborating school or organization.