Celebrating 21 Years
We are NYC Salt, an artist-led photography program that invests in public high school students by ensuring they have access to exactly what the creative industry requires: professional tools, professional teachers, and professional networks.
NYC Salt is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Young people thrive when they are taken seriously as artists. NYC Salt provides 45 New York City high school students each year with more than 330 hours of free programming, taught by working photographers with active careers in the industry. The photography instruction alone, nearly 200 hours of classes, mentorship, and hands-on workshops in a single year, is the equivalent of more than four college-level courses in a single discipline. Students who complete the full two to four year program accumulate the equivalent of up to 16 college-level courses, all before they graduate high school. Our sequential curriculum builds over two to four years, developing each student’s technical skills, creative voice, and professional network. Through partnerships with institutions including Hauser and Wirth Gallery, students have access to experiences available nowhere else, including workshops with photographers like Annie Leibovitz. Our alumni return to teach, mentor, and hire the next generation, creating a self-sustaining pipeline of working artists who reflect the full breadth of New York City.
• Professional-level instruction: Students train on Nikon professional cameras in a working studio, taught by photographers with active careers in the industry. The instruction, the equipment, and the standards are the same ones they will work with professionally.
• Multi-year continuity : Our sequential model builds over two to four years, allowing for sustained growth in craft, identity, and confidence that shorter programs are not structured to provide.
• College Preparation: More than 150 hours of individualized mentoring, workshops, campus visits, and application guidance ensure 100% of our high school seniors graduate college-ready.
• Artistic Growth: Public exhibitions, critique culture, and a close-knit artistic community help students develop a clear sense of themselves as artists whose voice and perspective have value.
• Industry networks: NYC Salt’s 21-year professional network connects students to internships, commissions, mentors, and career opportunities that extend well beyond the classroom, with alumni working at The New York Times, Getty Images, ESPN, and Adidas.
• Alumni engagement: Former students now working as photographers, educators, and creative professionals return to teach and mentor, strengthening the program and deepening its reach across generations.
New York City’s creative sector generates $30.4 billion in annual wages and drives $110 billion in economic activity, roughly 1 in every 8 dollars flowing through the economy. The potential to participate in that economy exists in every neighborhood. The access does not. Only 31% of NYC eighth graders receive the arts instruction the state requires. 307 schools have no certified arts teacher at all. Professional photography education requires expensive technology equipment that public schools cannot fund and most families cannot absorb. NYC Salt removes these barriers by providing the tools, the teachers, and the networks the industry runs on. Photography is the art form that democratizes the image and Salt is carrying that tradition forward.
For 21 years, NYC Salt has built pathways into the creative industry for young people who deserve to be there. We serve 45 students a year and can serve 75 with the right support.
The NYC Salt Patron Circle is our founding community of individual supporters. Every gift goes directly to a student’s education: photography instruction, mentoring, college preparation, and career exposure. One full year costs $10,000. Every level below is a meaningful piece of that.
GIVING LEVELS:
• $500
• $1,000
• $5,000
• $10,000
• $25,000
• $50,000
The Materials: software, exhibition printing, and a hard drive for one student
The Mentor: mentoring, critiques, and college visits for one student
The Full Investment: the complete NYC Salt experience for one student
The College Cohort: individualized college support for 10 students
The Teacher: one teaching artist’s full annual cost to the program
To learn more or join the NYC Salt Patron Circle, speak with Alicia Hansen, Alicia@nycsalt.org.
We are proud to partner with companies that believe young people from every neighborhood deserve a real pathway into the creative industry; their investment makes our year-long, tuition-free programming possible.
CONTACTS:
ALICIA HANSEN Founder & CEO alicia@nycsalt.org
RICHARD GROSBARD Strategic Advisor richard@nycsalt.org
MARGHERITA PIGNATELLI NYC Salt Board Member margherita@nycsalt.org
