Each year, Cool Culture partners with over 450 schools and early education programs to provide more than 50,000 historically marginalized families and their young children with free, unlimited admission to our network of 90 premiere museums, historical societies, zoos and botanical gardens.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 CuratorThe Studio Museum in Harlem
Make a donation to help Cool Culture continue the necessary work of helping families build communities through arts, culture, and storytelling.