Our Sharable COVID-19 Resource Guide for Families →

 

Time to Enroll for the ’20–’21 School Year!

Cool Culture’s 2020–2021CITYWIDE CULTURAL ACCESS PROGRAM

The Citywide Cultural Access Program allows your early learning program to join a community of over 450 early childhood centers and schools throughout the five boroughs that are committed to supporting family engagement and wellbeing through the arts.

In 2020 our partnership with schools and early childhood programs focuses on nurturing families and communities as they navigate the life altering challenges of the pandemic and the historic moment ignited by local and national protest movements.

For Early Childhood Centers

Enrollment is open from
August 24 to September 18, 2020

For DOE Title I and Charter Schools

Enrollment is open from
August 24 to October 30, 2020

Why Partner With Cool Culture Now?

Now more than ever, we are committed to connecting families to rewarding learning experiences that affirm their home culture, traditions, creative practices and languages.

This year, our commitment extends to offering educators new tools and practices that use arts and culture to reimagine family engagement as we navigate education in a hybrid of in person and virtual environments.

During times of crisis and isolation the role of art becomes an integral part in building community, sharing stories, and healing. Our Cool Culture staff, several who are also parents of young learners, are working with a professional learning community of peers to develop and test out new practices that support remote, blended and out-of-school-time learning. Our professional development workshops will focus on strengthening the connections with families, healing ourselves through cross-cultural exchanges, and building our capacity to advocate for justice and equity through art activism. We will explore together the transformative power of art and culture. We’ll also focus on preparing families to navigate virtual and in-person museum visits. We will keep you updated on health and safety protocols and virtual field trip strategies in our toolkit.

“Cool Culture increased my understanding of how I can introduce curating and art exhibitions at my school.”
—Maryam, Parent Coordinator, Queens

 

We’re Launching an Exciting New Curriculum Package

We have spent the last few months talking to families and educators like you, hearing concerns about isolation and engagement in a newly virtual world; the stress and trauma brought on by COVID-19 alongside efforts to address the impact of systemic racism in our communities.

In response, we are preparing to pilot a new curriculum that builds and supports the development of children’s social-emotional, cognitive, and physical development through art-making.

This integrated curriculum for grades 3K to 2 will include art activities that are designed to engage children, families, and community in relevant conversations about the real world events that are impacting their lives.

Together, children and their families will curate community projects that build resilience, exercise their rights, and elevate their well-being.

Our curriculum packages will include:

  • 48 Integrated Art Activities

  • Assessment Rubrics that are aligned to NCCAS and NYS ELA and Math

  • 4 Teacher Training Courses

  • Online Guides, Video and Curriculum Resources

  • Virtual Field Trips

Interested in Learning More?

Sign up here to be one of the first to get a preview and receive launch updates.

 

 

 

Creating access and Opportunity through art

Over the past 18 years, we have collaborated with families, schools, and museums to ensure equitable

access to cultural resources, to harness art and culture as tools for creative expression,

and to educate, create awareness, strengthen communities, and propel social change.

Racial Breakdown of Cool Culture Families

Languages Spoken by Cool Culture Families

Where Cool Culture Families Live

47% OF REGISTERED FAMILIES

Reported earning a household income of less than $35,000.

OUR PROGRAMS

At the core of Cool Culture's work is the use of art and culture as a vehicle for transformation that engages our emotional, intellectual and political imaginations. Cool Culture believes that art is a human right, a powerful means of self-expression, and a bridge that allows us to transcend boundaries between and across cultures to build community and to increase our capacity for dialogue and understanding.

  • Citywide Cultural Access Program

    Provides 50,000 families in 450 Early Childhood Centers and Title 1 Department of Education schools with a Cool Culture Family Pass that offers families a year of unlimited, free admission for up to five people to our 90 New York City cultural institution partners.

  • We Are All Curators

    Uses art, storytelling, and curation to bring together people and families from all walks of life — children, adult caregivers, educators, museum staff and community members — to tell stories through art, counter dominant narratives, build community and a shared community identity as well as advocate for cultural equity and access.

  • Intensive Community Collaborations Program

    Brings art to communities including Harlem, Chinatown, Corona, Queens and Bedford Stuyvesant/Crown Heights in Brooklyn, building relationships between families, educators, and museum professionals who work together to develop tailored programming for children and families.

  • Laboratory for New Audiences Program

    Creates and implements a series of seminars that guide the next generation of museum professionals in developing participatory programming. Participants also build skills in soliciting feedback from historically marginalized families about their exhibitions and programming, and in advocating for change in their institutions.
    Learn more.

     

TESTIMONIAL

Three Words that Describe
Cool Culture

Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator at The Studio Museum in Harlem describes Cool Culture as enriching, radical, and purposeful. Watch this brief video to to learn why.

Thelma Golden

Director and Chief Curator

The Studio Museum in Harlem

IMPACT

Since 1999, over a million families have been positively impacted by our work.

STAY IN THE KNOW!

COOL CULTURE NEWSLETTERS

The Exhibit

Quarterly email for the entire Cool Culture community with news on programs, partners, and events.

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ArtVenture

Monthly email for families featuring free events and local activities to enrich and empower your child.

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