March 29, 2005

Dear Friends,

Welcome and thank you for taking an interest in Youth Arts New York.

Youth Arts New York was inspired by the work of Robert Croonquist, an Engish teacher at Jamaica High School who teaches an interdisciplinary global literature course to ninth graders and who has forged a rare learning community in which classes hold councils, create beautiful art objects with master artists and explore the rich cultural and ecological offerings of New York City and the surrounding environs.

Our next venture is to take 40 juniors from Jamaica High School to Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, NY, on May 6.

Youth Arts acknowledges the essential role of the arts in building a strong civil society and in bringing people together to co-create a peaceful and sustainable future for our children and grandchildren.

In the last year we have built this website and defined our mission.  We now have a board of directors and an executive director.  We became a client of Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts who assigned us pro-bono lawyers from Skadden Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, LLP & Affiliates to file our incorporation papers with the State of New York and our
501(c)(3) tax exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service.  We incorporated with the State of New York March 23, 2005, and we plan to receive our Federal IRS tax exempt status before the end of the year.

We are proud to announce that we have received fiscal sponsorship by New York Foundation for the Arts.  We are thrilled to have this seal of approval from one of New York’s most respected arts organizations.

Our most exciting project in the near future is to explore the possibility of sponsoring the first Power of Hope summer program in the Northeast in the summer of 2006.  Our next steps are to:

• Develop a community of participating artists
• Offer “Express Yourself” Power of Hope facilitator trainings in the Northeast
• Send youth and adults to Washington State to participate in the Power of Hope
• Create a budget for a 2006 summer camp
• Develop a fundraising strategy
• Find a venue for the trainings and the summer camp

We invite you to join us and grow with us.

Sincerely,
Kathleen Sullivan
Executive Director