Our Partners

The United States Department of Education promotes student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access. It has provided LeAp with major grants to assist in residencies in the ALLL 3-5 Program, charter schools, ALLL 6-8 Program, and American History Comes Alive grant in the Bronx and Manhattan.

 

The New York City Department of Education is the largest city education department consisting of over 1,600 school and reaching 1.1 million students each year. The Department funds LeAp programs ranging from in-school residencies, to professional development for teachers, to parent workshops.

 

The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs is dedicated to supporting and strengthening New York City’s cultural life. The Department does so by providing public funding for nonprofit cultural organizations throughout the city. The Department currently funds LeAp’s Public Art Program and visual arts residencies in 10 schools.

 

The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) aims to preserve and expand the state's rich and diverse cultural resources. In addition to its grant-making activities, the Council supports artistic excellence and creative freedom as well as increased access to the arts and culture for all New Yorkers. NYSCA provides general operating support for LeAp, enabling us to maintain our extensive artistic offerings.

 

The Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) provides the City of New York and community-based organizations with high quality youth and family programming.  DYCD has been instrumental in funding and supporting LeAp’s out- of-school-time programs at JHS 22 and PS 33 in the Bronx.  These award-winning programs provide students and their families with a wide range of high quality programs from slam poetry and capoeira to printmaking and fashion design.

 

LeAp’s collaboration with the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation provides a unique opportunity for middle school students in our Public Art Program to exhibit their art in parks throughout the five boroughs, comprising the largest student exhibition in NYC Parks history. In this program, students explore community social issues, study the history of public art, meet well known public artists, and create large-scale works of art using a school lunchroom table as the canvas. In the summer, the art tables are displayed in a citywide 10-park exhibition, providing a public forum for the work and empowering young people to voice their views on social issues through their art.

 

The After-School Corporation (TASC) works in New York City, New York State, and nationally to enhance the quality, availability, and sustainability of comprehensive, daily afterschool programs. TASC funds, monitors, evaluates, and supports afterschool programs in New York City public schools, and has supported LeAp’s innovative programs at PS 182 in Queens and PS 163 in Manhattan.

 

HSBC

Since 2007, HSBC has partnered with LeAp to bring innovative arts education programming to thousands of NYC public school students. HSBC supports LeAp’s Public Art Program which empowers students to speak out on issues in their communities through the creation and public exhibition of art in NYC parks. The program enhances students’ art, analytical, and creative problem-solving skills, while helping them to develop a strong sense of social responsibility. Students also meet with world-renowned artists including Chuck Close and Christo, among many others. This program addresses the NYS Learning Standards in The Arts and Social Studies, and aligns with the Five Strands of Arts Learning outlined in the NYC Arts Blueprint. In addition, the program fully integrates with the NYC seventh-grade Social Studies curriculum (Unit III) Protection of Individual Rights and the eighth-grade Social Studies curriculum (Unit Eleven- II. D), The United States Begins a New Century.

 

The Blackstone Charitable Foundation is the primary supporter of LeAp's Tomorrow's Entrepreneurs Program, a program that will expose entrepreneurship to 1,600 disadvantaged, at-risk 3rd-6th grade New York City public school students. Funding for this program is made possible through The Foundation’s Blackstone Organizational Grants Program, an annual $1 million program targeting organizations that focus on fostering entrepreneurship and innovation. The goal of the program is to connect with innovative, early stage organizations that directly support entrepreneurs globally and help these selected organizations pilot, expand or replicate projects or programs that will catalyze the growth of successful businesses, industries, and communities. The Foundation is planning to engage Blackstone staff in the entrepreneurial visits and conference.

 

The engaging exhibits, child-friendly collections, and knowledgeable educators of the American Museum of Natural History encourage students to explore, research, and discover the natural sciences.  Using self-guided study sheets, students tour the museum and use the collections as a primary source for inquiry-based learning.  Upon returning to the classroom, a LeAp artist/scientist helps students create their own exhibits, dioramas, books, and murals based on the chosen area of study.

 

Columbia University’s History Department, the Carl C. Icahn Charter School, and LeAp are collaborating on the Fundamentals of American History Project, an initiative under the federal Teaching American History Program. The goals of the project are to improve American history instruction by trained teachers, as well as boost pupil achievement outcome through professional development in American history content and historical instructional strategies by Columbia University and LeAp staff.

 

Children First Network

The Children First Network is helping LeAp bring ALLL K-5 programs to more students in New York City. As of spring 2010, all NYC public schools receive their primary support from a team of about 15 staff members called a Children First Network. Each network team provides expert support, technical assistance, and quality control for a group of approximately 25 schools: they offer training and coaching for principals and teachers, share instructional resources to meet each school’s needs, and help schools across the network collaborate with each other.

 

This year, LeAp's Public Art Program is pleased to be partnering with Socrates Sculpture Park to host peer-to-peer workshops led by our student artist-activists who will be exhibiting their issue-based artworks in parks citywide. Students will facilitate workshops with other youth to create two large-scale artworks that address critical community issues of relevance to them. These artworks will be on display at Socrates Sculpture Park this summer in the Park's education area during the season's programming. Founded in 1986 by internationally renowned artist Mark di Suvero, Socrates Sculpture Park is dedicated to providing artists with opportunities to create and exhibit large-scale sculpture and multimedia installations in a unique outdoor environment that encourages strong interaction between artists, artworks and the public. The Park's existence is based on the belief that reclamation, revitalization and creative expression are essential to the survival, humanity and improvement of our urban environment.

 

The Compleat Sculptor, a leading art and materials resource establishment for sculptors worldwide, is partnering with LeAp by providing sculpture and casting workshops for students in LeAp’s ALLL Program. Workshops explore a variety of science topics such as archaeology, fossilization, and geology. The Compleat Sculptor is also partnering with LeAp’s Public Art Program to provide materials expertise and support.

 

Samuel French, Inc., the premier play publisher and licensing agent, handles such esteemed work as August Wilson’s Century Cycle, Thorton Wilder’s Our Town and Eugene O’Neill’s Ah, Wilderness. The company represents thousands of  playwrights, translators, lyricists, and composers throughout the world and facilitates the licensing of material that keeps performing arts humming in high schools, community theatres, and professional theatres globally. Samuel French has been partnering with Fidelity FutureStage and LeAp for the past three years publishing student playwrights, registering their work with the Library of Congress, and distributing them to students, parents, and others involved in the program.