The Artists Collective is a cultural institution serving the Greater Hartford region, providing year-round professional training in dance, music, drama, visual and martial arts emphasizing the arts and culture of the African Diaspora.

The Collective is unique in that its music, dance and visual arts programs use a non-traditional approach to arts education because they also include social skills training, school success and community responsibility. Individual and group workshops expose children to positive role models, stimulate youth to think critically, develop self-esteem, self-awareness, and pride in one’s cultural identity.

Charter Oak Cultural Center’s Youth Arts Institute is dedicated to providing wide access to the arts for Hartford youth and to strengthening family and community through professional and community arts programming. They do this by offering free, inclusive, visual art, music, theater and dance classes both onsite at Charter Oak and through partnerships.

Hartford Stage offers students of all ages with theatre programs that challenge and inspire. Their programs include student matinees, in-school theatre residencies, teen performance opportunities, theatre classes for students (ages 3-18) and adults, afterschool programs and paid summer internships in their annual Break-dancing Shakespeare program.

The Hartt School Community Division of the University of Hartford is a comprehensive community arts school providing instruction in music and dance that serves over 2,800 students of all ages and backgrounds. Students experience high-quality instruction from committed faculty.

Real Art Ways offers free summertime art-making workshops for kids at George Day Park. There’s a different project every day at our informal, drop-in sessions. It’s a vibrant scene of fresh, creative energy when kids flock to the playground to make totems out of recyclables, build and bang their own drums, or learn something new from the week’s Visiting Artist. RAW also offers free Film Field Trips to Hartford schools.

The Wadsworth Atheneum Community Arts Program engages local youth in after-school programs throughout Hartford in a series of three sessions that includes onsite and offsite components. The program encourages the 21st Century Skills of collaboration and communication by fostering dialogue and art-making based on objects in the Wadsworth’s collection. Also note that the museum offers free admission to Hartford residents.