Emergency Exhibition:
New Training for Future Artists
and Art Lovers

Emergency Exhibition: New Training for Future Artists and Art Lovers brings together artwork by students aged Pre-K to 5th grade from Children’s Museum of the Arts’ three Emergency Arts Education Fund partner organizations across New York City: 1) Hudson Guild in Chelsea, Manhattan; 2) P396K Sid Miller Academy in Crown Heights, Brooklyn; and 3) Children’s Workshop School in East Village, Manhattan.

Although these three organizations are separated by geography, they have one thing in common — they have all lost arts funding as a result of citywide budget cuts. The works in this exhibition demonstrate the breadth of the experimental arts curriculum crafted and implemented by each of CMA’s Artists in Residence: Maria D. Rapicavoli at Hudson Guild; Niousha Kiarashi at P396K Sid Miller Academy, and Noormah Jamal at Children’s Workshop School. These three approaches vary in style, but are united in their goal to provide deeply ambitious free arts education to students who need it most. 

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The exhibition borrows its title from Mark Rothko’s 1934 essay New Training for Future Artists and Art Lovers, which encourages artists to approach their craft from the perspective of a child. For Rothko, the function of the instructor is to inspire confidence rather than impose overbearing guidelines. In this spirit, Emergency Exhibition: New Training for Future Artists and Art Lovers affirms the diversity of student learning profiles through a year of inclusive art instruction and joyful co-creation.