Every Tuesday evening a team of five weekly mentors works with twelve 6-8 year old children at a supported housing facility in the Bronx. During the first week of their Home is Where the Art Is curriculum, the group learns about artist Romare Bearden’s collage "The Block" -inspired by Bearden’s childhood memories of his Harlem neighborhood- and the children make collages about their neighborhood. By the end of the semester, they’ll be collaborating on a giant mural showing the new sense of community they’ve gained in their Weekly Mentor group...

The Weekly Mentor Program is a 25-week arts-based mentoring program that provides youth ages 6-13 with regular opportunities to express themselves creatively and engage with positive adult role models. Led by Professional Facilitators, teams of Volunteer Mentors use Free Arts NYC’s theme-based curricula to guide youth through creating and discussing visual art projects – a process that serves as a catalyst to help youth strengthen critical communication and social skills, and build positive relationships with peers and adults.

All Weekly Mentor groups run during the academic year (October-May), and their mentor-to-child ratio is 1:2 or 1:3.

Want to be a Weekly Mentor?

Past curriculum themes and projects:

• The Art of Play

Projects include: "Do Nothing" toys, “Improvisational Sculptures”, “Sensory Masks”, “Surrealist Flipbooks”, and “Action Paintings”.


• Global Festivals

Projects include: "Inti Raymi Incan Capes", "Dogon Masks", "Russian Winter Festival Nesting Boxes" and "Hanami Fish Prints".

• Earth-Smart Art

Projects include: "Recycled Button Sculptures", "Newspaper Origami", "Coffee Cuppets", and "Bubble-Wrap Print Making".

• Home is Where the Art Is

Projects include: "African Painted Houses", "Home Stories Artist Books", "Design Your Own Tree-House" and "Community Murals".

• Folk & Outsider Art

Projects include: "Tiki Character Totems", "Animal Tin Painting", "Altered Book Collages" and "Mexican Nichos".