Learn about the Whitney’s collaboration with a select number of community-based senior organizations.
Contemporary artists grapple with many of the same complex issues that our modern communities do—from race and gender to war, aging, and identity. Through detailed observation, innovative processes, and creativity, artists provide us with new ways of understanding and looking at the world around us. The Whitney’s pre-eminent collection and exhibitions of American art can serve as a focal point for exploration, dialogue, and self-expression for our diverse communities.
Community Programs
The Whitney’s Community Programs build sustained connections that go beyond the isolated museum visit, bringing art, ideas, and dialogue to classrooms, senior centers, and community-based organizations around the city. By meeting our new audiences where they are and building bridges between their experiences and the art and artists of the Whitney, we seek to foster lasting, meaningful relationships.
Who we work with:
A limited number of free programs are available for qualifying not-for-profit community-based groups and organizations. The Whitney seeks to promote local relationships that strengthen our immediate community by providing free or affordable programming to organizations with demonstrated need. We work with groups whose goals align with the mission and values of the Whitney Museum of Art, and who have the resources to support and benefit from collaboration.
Guided Visits
An hour-long thematic gallery tour tailored to your community organization. A Museum educator introduces participants to three to five works of art through discussions and activities that incorporate the artist’s voice and process. Customized tours available to accommodate diverse learning needs.
FEE:
FREE for a limited number of Community-Based Organizations. All other groups may visit at a cost of $200 per group.
GROUP SIZE:
25 participants or less, with a 2-group limit per tour time. Detailed information on group sizes, tour dates, and tour times are available on the tour request form.
Community Collaboratives
Free, multi-session programs that include a museum visit and off-site programming. In this series, a Museum educator works with a representative at your organization to design a customized program and will lead a hands-on program at your site before and after the Museum visit.
FEE:
FREE for qualifying community members, after an initial application or meeting.
GROUP SIZE:
25 participants or less, with a 2-group limit per tour time. Detailed information on group sizes, tour dates, and tour times are available on the tour request form.
See an example
Community Partnerships
Sustained, extended relationships that bring Whitney educators and artists into an organization for extended programming, which promotes the Museum as an essential resource.
Learn more about our current community partners: The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center, Hudson Guild, and The Regent Family Residence.
See examplesNew Neighborhood Initiatives
In preparation for our move downtown in 2015, the Whitney Education Department has been engaged in research, outreach, and an inclusive planning process as we get to know our new neighborhood. We have been learning from our neighbors as they tell us about their stories, needs, and interests, and piloting programs with a wide range of schools and community-based organizations in the area.
WECAN: Our New Network Downtown
Danielle Linzer, Manager of Access and Community Programs, welcomes the members of WECAN to the Whitney, April 2012. Photograph by Emma Brennan
The Whitney Education Community Advisory Network (WECAN) is a group of local residents, teachers, parents, and representatives from social service providers and community-based organizations in the Whitney’s future neighborhood in downtown Manhattan. Through WECAN, we involve our neighbors in an ongoing dialogue exploring ways that the Whitney can become an essential resource for this diverse and dynamic community. The network meets bimonthly to engage in a series of conversations about the Whitney’s role in the new neighborhood and our educational programming.
Read more on our blogMembers of the Whitney Education Community Action Network
These community organizations participate in the WECAN program:
Community Board 2
ELESAIR
Elliott-Chelsea Housing
Fulton Houses
Greenwich House
Hudson Guild
The Lab School
The LGBT Center
PS 3
PS 33
SAGE
Westbeth Artists Housing
Words From a Participant
“Art in our community is kind of removed from the people who need it the most. It’s more of a business, and there are many amazing galleries . . . that we don’t have any access to. It’s important to make art more accessible to the people in the community because once it is accessible, the community changes.”
—Meg Lyons
Teacher at Chelsea Prep: PS 33
Pilot Programs
The Whitney’s downtown pilot programs establish new relationships by collaborating with a broad range of community-based organizations. These specialized programs enable participants to forge meaningful connections with the art and artists of the Whitney.
ELESAIR
Through our ongoing work with ELESAIR, the Whitney is exploring strategies for using American art to support English language-learning for immigrants and refugees. Whitney ESOL programs engage new Americans and speakers of other languages in conversation, writing, and artmaking inspired by our collection and exhibitions.
FIERCE
FIERCE builds the leadership of LGBTQ youth of color and seeks to preserve the West Village and West Side piers as a safe space for queer communities. The Museum collaborates with FIERCE to find connections between Whitney artists and exhibitions and their mission.
Housing Works
The Housing Works West Village Health Center is the citywide organization’s oldest health center in the City. The Whitney works with recreational art therapists in their adult day treatment program to provide free artmaking workshops and museum visits for adults affected by HIV and AIDS.
Senior Programs
We partner with community-based senior organizations to create customized programs that challenge seniors to actively engage with the Whitney’s collection and exhibitions, share ideas, and relate what they learn to their own lives and experiences.
at the whitney
The Whitney’s Open Access Days provide guided tours and access to the Museum on a day when the Whitney is closed to the public.
at your center
From interactive slide-based lectures to studio art courses, the Whitney’s center-based programs offer inroads to the diversity and richness of American art and culture.
for your homebound population
Extending the Whitney walls to homebound seniors, the Museum’s Teleconference Courses are an illustrated, multi-part lecture series organized through Meals on Wheels.
