The Society of Illustrators will make a difference in the lives of 100 at-risk youth ages 9-13 from the most vulnerable neighborhoods in New York City this July through their Summer Illustration Art Academy. This project with the Department of Parks & Recreation Afterschool Program is supported in-part by private individual and corporate grants.

The Academy serves 25 youth per week from the following Recreation Centers: Hunt’s Point in the Bronx, J. Hood Wright in Manhattan, Herbert Von King Cultural Arts Center in Brooklyn and Arrow in Queens. Students learn multi-media drawing techniques from 11 prominent illustrators; use NYC cultural, historical and scientific institutions as their learning labs; and gain greater insight into the life of an illustrator.

Each student receives a backpack filled with art supplies, textbook and Academy T-shirt for easy identification while traveling to such famous NYC landmarks as the Bronx Zoo, Rubin Museum, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, New York Aquarium at Coney Island and New York Hall of Science. The Society provides nutritious lunches and orients the youth to the program at their Museum of American Illustration located in an 1875 Carriage House on East 63rd Street.

This year’s roster of renowned Academy instructors include: Joan Chiverton, Bil Donovan, Lynne Foster, Jeff Fisher, Stephen Gardner, Joel Iskowitz, Victor Juhasz, Edel Rodriquez and Chris Spollen. They integrate their illustration expertise with the NYS Learning Standards in the Visual Arts to provide students with holistic outcomes-based curriculum.