Brian Ricklin Executive Director and CEO
Creative art works! Each year, we touch thousands of young lives with creative youth development services. On subsequent pages of this journal, you will read compelling statistics that demonstrate why that matters. But, in all truthfulness, charts and graphs are not what get me out of bed every morning. I simply can’t imagine a New York City, let alone a world, in which kids do not have the opportunity to make art. For me, developing an appreciation of beauty is a way to think about how the world could be and to inspire us to make our dreams reality. There is both a rigor and a freedom to all art-making at CAW – we foster a sense of investment and ownership in the art and help develop a sense of personal agency with all our programs, from our Saturday art workshops for elementary school kids to our large-scale public art programs employing youth apprentices. We outline the tenets of social justice, draw on emotions, and paint a language of critical thinking that spans across learning disciplines. As we celebrate our 30th anniversary, and contemplate our future, I would like to thank all of you, and there are many, who have helped us empower youth and inspire possibility. I am humbled and grateful for all of your support.
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