Partner Highlight: NBCUniversal

We are deeply grateful to our corporate partner NBCUniversal for their commitment to our mission. In their just-released 2023 Impact Report, NBCU/Comcast announced over $100M in multi-year pledges to social justice, diversity, equity and inclusion. Urban Arts is proud to be a long time partner of a company committed to making a difference.

NBCUniversal has consistently encouraged our students through a host of initiatives, including one-on-one mentoring and through programmatic workshops like the NBC PitchFest, giving access and exposure to the world of work. Further, they’ve invested in our organizational success with their Creative Impact Lab.

For our students, initiatives like these build confidence and career skills. Beyond critical tech equity, they promote diversity in achievement.

Our students work with NBC volunteers from throughout the organization, from content professionals to marketing executives to ad pros and more. In these safe spaces, we covered both hard skills—narrative writing, design, working in a professional space, portfolio review, career direction, goal-setting—as well as personal development—the power of voting, POC community, public speaking, dealing with stress and much more.

Thank you again to NBCU/Comcast for partnering with Urban Arts. Together we’re reinforcing a new diverse talent pipeline and pathways to genuine economic mobility.

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Creative Impact Lab

Urban Arts is proud to join NBCU’s Creative Impact Lab as a Nonprofit Client! Over the next few months, we will be collaborating with Wide Angle Youth Media and NBCU creative executives on marketing videos that tell the story of our work and help us achieve our goals. We are excited to be able to amplify student voices through this initiative. Stay tuned to see the work!

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Urban Arts Student Showcase: Arcade 2023

The Urban Arts Arcade had *everything*—a Fish Gun, The Final Bean, A Witch’s Cat! It was a true Cyber Rush, an Expedition to the Stars, all enjoyed In a Snap on Saturday, June 24th at our own Flatiron Learning Lab and streaming on Twitch. We had 123 attendees at Urban Arts, 150 on Twitch, and a total of 27 student and alumni games on display.Our most advanced student cohort—Studio—presented their final games to industry pros for specific, professional feedback. The panel, which included employees from Respawn Entertainment, evaluated the individual games and offered exposure to and advice about working in the digital gaming space, a $2B industry just in NYC.

Urban Arts teaches underrepresented students the art and technology of game development, imparting high-level computer science skills and confidences in coding, animation, music, and storytelling. 90% of our students are from low-income communities. We’re leveling the digital playing field and changing the future of tech.

“You guys are all amazing,” said Manny Hagopian, Creative Director at Respawn. “The way you support each other is fantastic!”

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Summer Camp #NoMosquitos

Camp is in session! The Urban Arts office is abuzz with activity. Students are in-office five days a week to play, design, create digital art & video games and learn how to code like a pro! Interested in visiting Urban Arts this summer to learn more about what we do and see our impact first hand? Please contact Richard Morin: richard.morin@urbanarts.org

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Gaming for Good! Thank You GSA 🏆

Our charity streaming partner the Global Speedrun Association (GSA) held their annual week-long PACE Summer convention and raised a whopping $30,055 for Urban Arts!

Speedrunning is an individual’s attempts to beat part or all of a video game as quickly as possible. The high-energy 24/7 event, held at Xanadu Games in Maryland, featured the Speedrun World Record Circuit Finals. 

Some of the speedrunning community’s most prominent personalities faced off in events like the Super Mario 64 tournament, with players finishing within mere seconds of each other. 

Twitch mega-streamer and GSA big shot (and Urban Arts celeb) Cheese explained that the meticulous attention to detail “makes speedrunning a sort of cross between playing an instrument and cooking,” abstracting a video game to its essence.  

GSA is a huge supporter of Urban Arts, boosting us as their charity partner in Twitch streams throughout the year, raising tens of thousands of dollars from their generous community. The gaming community continues to demonstrate its incredible commitment to a more equitable gaming and tech future. A huge thank you to Ivan, Cheese, GSA, and all involved.

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Meet our new website!