New Urban Arts

New Urban Arts is a nationally-recognized community arts studio for high school students and emerging artists in Providence, Rhode Island. Their mission is to build a vital community that empowers young people as artists and leaders to develop a creative practice they can sustain throughout their lives. The program is free and students are free to come as much or as little as they wish. There are various different art programs for them to chose from and they are not required to do the same ones every time they go. New Urban Arts also shares some demographic information on their website which was great to look at and analyze. According to the NUA website, "61% of participants are female, 37% are Hispanic/Latino, and 82% of students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch based on income guidelines. These were just some of the highest percentages that stood out to me." Additionally, "94% of our students are from five ZIP Codes; 02904, 09205, 02907, 02908, and 02909 where collectively the poverty rate for families with kids is 34%, almost twice the national average." 94%. That is a huge chunk of the programs participants from all different areas. I chose to look at zip code area 02904. According to the American Fact Finder website, this area has a median household income of $37,287. About 22% of individuals living in this area are living below the poverty level. As I looked further into the information on housing, race, and income, I could depict that people living in this area are not struggling as much as opposed to some of the other zip codes listed on the NUA website. The graduation rate in this area is about 85%. This could mean that there are not many high school drop outs and students have access to enough resources to be able to graduate from high school. This area is also close to three colleges: RIC, PC. and Brown University. One might infer that people living in this are going to these schools. NUA as a whole serves a wide population and participants of the programs come from all different backgrounds. However, NUA does a great job at making sure everyone feels welcome and provides a safe space to all who join.