Bronx Artists For SPARC: Seniors Partnering With Artists Citywide Competitive Residency Program will place up to 50 Artists in Senior Centers across the Five Boroughs
The Bronx Council on the Arts (BCA) is announcing Seniors Partnering with Artists Citywide (SPARC), a community arts engagement program that places artists-in-residence at senior centers across the five boroughs of New York City. The program provides selected artists with access to workspace in senior centers and a stipend in exchange for the creation and delivery of arts programming for seniors. Participating seniors will be engaged in an art project or series of cultural programs over the course of the residency, which will also include a public program component -- a series of exhibits, open houses and other cultural interactions open to the surrounding community. This initiative seeks to connect artists with seniors in senior centers and positively impact the well-being of seniors through arts-based activities.
The Bronx Council on the Arts is the administrating organization for the Bronx. Artists will be selected for SPARC through a competitive application process. A call to artists is available on the BCA website at:
HYPERLINK "http://www.bronxarts.org" www.bronxarts.org
Bronx artists interested in working with a senior center in the borough of Bronx. Artists interested in a SPARC residency with a senior center in another borough are encouraged to visit the website of their local arts council for application materials and guidelines. The submission deadline is September 30th, 2011.
To download the application for a SPARC residency at a Bronx senior center, please visit the Bronx Council on the Arts website at HYPERLINK "http://www.bronxarts.org" www.bronxarts.org. Questions? Call 718-931-9500 x23.
SPARC is a collaboration among the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Department for the Aging and the City's five local arts councils situated in each borough – Bronx Council on the Arts, Brooklyn Arts Council, Council on the Arts and Humanities of Staten Island, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Queens Council on the Arts. It was developed as part of Age-Friendly NYC, a citywide effort to make the City more livable for seniors, and previously ran as a successful pilot called Space for Art. The program is supported, in part, by funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.