The Pixel: Urban Arts Newsletter – June
NYC Summer of Games
New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently announced the launch of “NYC Summer of Games”—a citywide celebration of New York City’s booming digital games community featuring marquee events, expos, tournaments, exhibits, workshops, and programs across all five boroughs from June – September 2023.
“Urban Arts is thrilled to be included in the mayor’s Summer of Games, as the premier nonprofit designing and implementing arts and technology programs for underrepresented students,” Philip Courtney, CEO, Urban Arts.
NYC Summer of Games officially kicked off with the first-ever in-person “Minecraft Education Battle of the Boroughs Mayor’s Cup” on Saturday, June 10th at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. Our 2023 Nagler Scholar Giselle Muriel designed the winning custom game controller!
Urban Arts Receives Prestigious Grant
Urban Arts has been approved for a Grant for Arts Projects award from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to support our School of Interactive Arts (SIA) Mastery program. SIA Mastery provides out-of-school wraparound services—programming and game design instruction, art portfolio production, college advising, test prep, master classes—for 9-12th grade students from Title 1 NYC public high schools.
Urban Arts’ project is among 1,130 projects from across the country, totaling more than $31M, that was selected during this fiscal year.
“The National Endowment for the Arts is pleased to support a wide range of projects, including Urban Arts’ SIA Mastery program, demonstrating the many ways the arts enrich our lives and contribute to healthy and thriving communities,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “These organizations play an important role in advancing the creative vitality of our nation and helping to ensure that all people can benefit from arts, culture, and design.”
Our Director of Programs Shannon Moran thanks the NEA: “We are honored to be included among the outstanding organizations and initiatives that the NEA supports. The investment in our program inspires us to strive for even greater impact.”
Student Showcase: Arcade
Join us on June 24th to support students from our Studio class as they present their final games followed by feedback from a panel of game design pros. Play student games, attend masterclasses, interact with our students & alums, enter virtual reality in our Oculus room, and much more!
There’s an option to stream the events of the day on Twitch: www.twitch.tv/urban_arts
Urban Arts Golf Classic
We are so grateful to everyone who joined the 2023 Urban Arts Golf Classic last Wednesday. Your dedication and kindness to our Board Member Steve Geismar and the Urban Arts mission is so incredibly appreciated. We surpassed our fundraising goal, ensuring continued programming for our students. See you next year out on the course!
Community Day at Urban Arts
A crew of Paramount employees (and Ronny the dog!) spent their Community Day with Urban Arts to spruce up the place for our summer programming. A big THANK YOU to all the volunteers who came to the office and got us student-ready! Summer campers arrive July 10! Game on!
Happy Pride Month from Urban Arts! We are dedicated to building a more inclusive and equal space for all. Everyone is welcome here. “It takes no compromise to give people their rights…it takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no political deal to give people freedom. It takes no survey to remove repression.”―Harvey Milk
