Almost Human Competitors

ArtsConnection is a nationally recognized non-profit arts education organization with a 45-year history of giving New York City public school students, pre-kindergarten through grade 12, the skills, motivation and positive reinforcement they need to succeed academically and personally. Our award-winning arts programs support literacy and foster communication, creativity, collaboration and critical thinking. We direct our work to the most high-needs communities, and each year reach 45,000 students through partnerships with over 120 public schools across the 5 boroughs and through after-school and weekend initiatives that engage middle and high school students in the cultural resources of New York City. Children and teens are learning to better understand themselves and the world around them through our music, dance, theater, media and visual arts programming led by a faculty of over 125 specially-trained professional artists who share their distinctive artistic perspectives to inspire, guide and teach students.

Artspace is America’s leader in artist-led community transformation. Our mission is to create, foster, and preserve affordable and sustainable space for artists and arts organizations. With headquarters in Minneapolis and offices in Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Seattle and Washington DC, Artspace runs a network of more than 50 affordable arts facilities in 20 states. Our facilities provide more than 1,500 affordable live/work units for artists and their families as well as a million square feet of non-residential space for artists, arts organizations and creative enterprises.

The New Britain Museum of American Art’s founding in 1903 entitles the institution to be designated the first museum of strictly American art in the country. That year, a $20,000 gift of gold bonds to the museum’s former parent, the New Britain Institute, from industrialist John Butler Talcott, created funds to purchase ”modern oil paintings.” Subsequent purchases, with advice from New York museums and galleries, further defined ”modern” to mean American works of art, now numbering more than 8,300. With particular strengths in colonial portraiture, the Hudson River School, American Impressionism, and the Ash Can School, not to mention the important mural series The Arts of Life in America by Thomas Hart Benton, the museum relies heavily on its permanent collection for exhibitions and programming, yet also displays a significant number of borrowed shows and work by emerging artists. The singular focus on American art and its panoramic view of American artistic achievement make the New Britain Museum of American Art a significant teaching resource available to the local, regional, and national public.