ArtHouse

Art House - logo

Inspiring Community Through Art

The ArtHouse is a socially engaged, art-based initiative in one of the most impoverished communities in the nation – Northwest Gardens – an affordable housing neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale where 600 families and seniors living in Phases I & III earn less than 60% of the area’s median income. The ArtHouse is an example of a national directive called creative placemaking – the belief that art, culture and creativity expressed powerfully through place can create vibrant communities.

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The ArtHouse was envisioned in 2012, in response to the Broward Community Foundation’s Art of Community Engagement Challenge, which called for “big, bold civic engagement projects that utilize the arts to address issues of public concern” – in this case the isolation felt by low-income residents from the arts community…and the disconnect they feel to each other and their new community.

With support from foundations, corporations and government partners – most significantly the Housing Authority of the City of Fort Lauderdale – Young At Art has transformed a vacant duplex at Northwest Gardens into state-of-the-art studios for painting, drawing, printmaking, ceramics and sculpture, plus computers for homework and online research. Programs conducted by Young At Art Instructors include creative exploration, after-school and summer arts experiences, family engagement, Business of Art workshops for teens and young adults, spoken word workshops, senior story circles, intergenerational programs, community events, exhibitions and Public Art Projects produced by residents working with South Florida professional artists that enhance their community. The ArtHouse, which opened in February 2013, operates six days per week, year-round.

The ArtHouse is part of a collaborative effort among Young At Art Museum, the Housing Authority, Urban League Center for Working Families, YMCA and other Broward non-profit social services and cultural organizations to improve the health, education and self-sufficiency of economically disadvantaged seniors and families.

Visit or call the ArtHOUSE and get more details about FREE Art Sessions, workshops and events for NWG residents.