Funding Cut Resulting in Harlem School of the Art Shutting down

April 13, 2010

The Harlem School of the Arts has been te aching local children everything from music to dance to theater to visual arts for decades and was one of New York’s most treasured educational institutions. Yet in recent years, the nonprofit school has met with financial ruin and sadly been forced to close its doors, cutting the opportunity for young people with talent the same opportunity as those who can afford Manhattan’s pricier arts schools.

It is unclear whether or not the school, which offered many classes for free or by scholarship and served 3,000 students a year, will ever open again.

This is a clear example of what Music Unites is working to prevent through raising funds for schools just like The Harlem School of Arts. Without places such as this, talent cannot be nurtured and dreams go unlived for future generations. Ms. Akeju, the former president of the school, who attended as 13-year-old girl in 1964, tells the New York Times in this week’s article on the closing:

"It was the first time I saw people that looked just like me doing the things that I loved to do," she said. "You could make it as an artist. You could be an opera singer. Before that it was just a fantasy. It really changed my life."