Arts for Kids

Sharing the gifts of the arts through teaching, creating and performing.

Programs

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Arts-in-Education Program Offerings

  • What Is Jazz? A Multicultural Musical Journey: Trace the evolution of jazz from its African roots through Caribbean and South American influences, New Orleans
  • Rainbow Crow, A Lenape legend brought to life with storytelling, Native American flute, and traditional songs.
  • Drum Tales, folktales such as “How the Turtle Got Its Shell” are accompanied by African drumming and audience participation.
  • Wisdom and Delight Storytelling from the African Diaspora, paired with traditional acoustic instruments.
  • The Fire Children, A Ghanaian creation myth enhanced with djembe, thumb piano, rhythm, and dance.
  • Aesop Bops! High-energy storytelling brings classic Aesop fables to life.
  • Brazilian Fantasy (K–12) ,A showcase of Afro-Brazilian culture, including capoeira, maculele, and samba de roda dances.
  • African Dance (K–12), Traditional African dance and drumming presented by professional performers.
  • Jazz Orpheus, A modern musical retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Euridice.
  • African Drum Celebration, Master drummers performing rhythms tracing back to the Mali Empire.
  • The Afro-Caribbean Musical Journey, An introduction to mambo, rumba, bomba, plena, merengue, and more.
  • Stand Up Speak Out (K–12), A music-driven program encouraging compassion and bias awareness.
Arts for Kids founders Vincent and Karen Ector (right) take a pause from the activity to take a photograph with Congressman Donald Payne Jr. (center) Principal English, Tyson Director of Bands Dr. Oscar Petty, and AFK Board member Rod Spearman

Kids in communities like East Orange deserve the same kind of arts and music education that their peers in more affluent areas get, and programs like Arts for Kids are essential for closing that gap and making sure that all of our students are exposed to creative arts. I visited this wonderful program at the Cicely Tyson School of the Performing Arts this week to see up-close how it is impacting our children. The American Rescue Plan created opportunities to direct critical funding to governments and organizations like this that support our communities, and I’m proud to have been able to deliver this assistance to keep this program running.

Congressman Donald Payne Jr.

Our educational programs and assemblies have been presented in numerous schools, community centers, libraries, and museums, as well as in public areas throughout the NYC tri-state area and abroad since 2000.