Summer 2004 - The DreamYard A.C.T.I.O.N. Project begins its inaugural summer
Fall of 2005 - The Bronx Acting Ensemble begins
Fall of 2007 - What is Art? (Bronx Art Collective) begins
Spring of 2008- DreamYard brings all teen programs (ACTION, BAE, BAC) under one umbrella and is coined DreamYard’s Out of School Programs (OSP)
Spring of 2009- The DreamYard Art Center opens providing not only a home for our administrative offices, but for all of OSP’s programs.
Summer of 2009-The ACTION Project is the first group to “break in” the new Art Center spending their summer creating their highly successful HIV Project.
-Members of the Bronx Art Collective curate the Art Center.
Fall of 2009- The Bronx Poetry Project begins
At the OSP Staff Retreat both a Mission Statement and a Philosophy Statement are created through a collaborative writing process. OSP firmly declares its commitment to social justice and community engagement.
Winter of 2010- OSP Mini
Begins providing free dance classes for elementary aged children and their adult caretakers.
DreamYard’s Out of School Programs
A History
DreamYard’s Teen Programs was formed in the Spring of 2008 to provide a home for all of our programming serving young adults: The DreamYard A.C.T.I.O.N. Project, The Bronx Acting Ensemble (BAE) and The Bronx Art Collective (BAC). Robyne Walker Murphy was tapped as it’s first Program Director after having served in the organization as a teaching artist and Site Coordinator. Evelyn Bojorquez, former Program Coordinator for the A.C.T.I.O.N. Project, was named as the program’s Associate Director. Shortly after, DreamYard’s Teen Programs was renamed DreamYard’s Out of School Programming (OSP). OSP’s first year was spent in our offices near Yankee stadium. The office housed our administrative offices, but our programs were spread out in various spaces in the Bronx: The ACTION Project used The Point and Bronx Charter School for the Arts; BAC had their sessions at Marble Hill High School and later moved to Bronx Charter School for the Arts and BAE held their classes on the campus of Lehman College.
In the Spring of 2009, the DreamYard Art Center opened giving a home to our administrative offices and our Out of School programs. Located in Morrisania, the DreamYard Art Center occupies 6,500 sq. feet on the ground and basement floors of an affordable housing unit at 1085 Washington Avenue. The building was made possible by Bronx Pro Real Estate and serves as a mixed use, 90-unit residential building that features a green roof certified as a natural habitat and solar and photovoltaic paneling providing electricity to public areas and domestic hot water.
The DreamYard Art Center features two visual art rooms, a writing room, library, theater/dance studio, black box theatre and a community lounge and exhibition space which is often used as a classroom and place for our participants to gather and relax.
In the summer of 2009, The A.C.T.I.O.N. Project “christened” the space working on their their highly successful HIV Project. Also during that summer, the Bronx Art Collective curated the Center choosing art pieces that reflected our commitment to the arts and community. The Art Center provided our participants with an even greater sense that OSP was a second home/family; a place they could call their own.
In the Fall of 2009, DreamYard’s OSP staff convened at a loft in Tribeca for the 2nd staff retreat where they worked in collaboration and penned our mission and philosophy statements which reflect our deep commitment to empower all those who are a part of the work to be confident, creative leaders through rigorous artistic development, academic enrichment, and a commitment to social justice.
