Society of Illustrators - Making a Difference

The Society of Illustrators will make a difference in the lives of 100 at-risk youth ages 9-13 from the most vulnerable neighborhoods in New York City this July through their Summer Illustration Art Academy. This project with the Department of Parks & Recreation Afterschool Program is supported in-part by a National Endowment for the Arts grant.

The Academy serves 25 youth per week from the following Recreation Centers: Hunt’s Point in the Bronx, J. Hood Wright in Manhattan, Sunset Park in Brooklyn and Arrow in Queens. Students learn multi-media drawing techniques from 11 prominent illustrators; use NYC cultural, historical and scientific institutions as their learning labs; and gain greater insight into the life of an illustrator.

Each student receives a backpack filled with art supplies, An Illustrated Life textbook and Academy T-shirt for easy identification while traveling to such famous NYC landmarks as the Bronx Zoo, Rubin Museum, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, New York Aquarium at Coney Island and New York Hall of Science. The Society provides nutritious lunches and orients the youth to the program at their Museum of American Illustration located in an 1875 Carriage House on East 63rd Street.

This year’s roster of renowned Academy instructors include: Steve Brodner, Joan Chiverton, Bil Donovan, Lynne Foster, Stephen Gardner, Joel Iskowitz, Victor Juhasz, K. Wendy Popp, Melanie Reim, Edel Rodriquez and Chris Spollen. They integrate their illustration expertise with the NYS Learning Standards in the Visual Arts to provide students with holistic outcomes-based curriculum.

For more information regarding the Summer Illustration Art Academy, contact Society Director Anelle Miller at 212-838-2560 or anelle@societyillustrators.org.