Like every mother, I can’t help but marvel that this “baby” of mine has just begun its fifteenth year. HiArt!’s first semester consisted of one good-natured two-year old and his parents, my daughter, my husband and me in a quite dingy midtown dance studio. Everything we needed for class had to come, each week, with me. Picture me: tv, boom box, cassettes and my gigantic shopping bags of art supplies in hand. Surely I was the bane of every cab driver in New York City: an art-crazed shopping bag lady loading this huge cartful of supplies in and out of a taxi smack in the middle of midtown traffic. Nonetheless, we had the grandest of times : dancing away to Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, we created spectacular art drawn from the images of fallible saints and the angels watching over them.

In our stunning studio that overflows with art supplies and the boundless energy of amazing young artists -- we dance on sparkling floors and sully them daily with masses of paint, glitter and every conceivable art supply imaginable. The entire city is our art-oyster: whether it’s Chelsea, or Brooklyn, or uptown at the Guggenheim – HiArt! kids don’t just look at art, they “climb inside of it.” We’ve danced to Pipilotti Rist, jumped under Christo’s gates, been part of Albert Maysles documentary, made animations from food, chatted with Thomas Struth, worked on a community mosaic in Harlem, been on the stage – so many times – of the New York City Opera and immersed ourselves in the brilliant music of composers from Rameau to Prokofiev, from Schoenberg to Babbit.

At HiArt! there's a permanent big dream: to nurture a generation of kids as they grow in breadth, skill and insight. 2011-12 is about the begin and we are bursting with energy and plans! Prokofiev's magical, mystical and hysterically funny Love for Three Oranges takes center stage at Opera 'N Art. Mega mess, tons of in-studio fun as we take the opera apart through hands-on art with Prokofiev's brilliant music all around us. Then hop, hop, hop we go - sketchbooks in hand - into the world of today's most provocative contemporary art scene. Galleries, museums. Wherever great modern art goes, so go we! Think your kid is too young? Or too old? Think again! Mine started before she was 2 and look at her now: a freshman in the honors program at the School of Visual Arts, a fabulous artist who's sold thousands of dollars of art to help support Time In and a HiArt! teacher to boot!

As kids grow, so does HiArt!.  And we've devised plenty of ways for Bigger Kids to spread their wings -- all the way through middle school! Like real working artists do it? That’s what the Bigger Kids classes are about. We’ve got the most happening manga studio in town: There’s Manga Madness with Yali Lin  as well as Zoe’s Saturday Mangathon. Need inspiration? Painting with the incredible Ellen Berkenblit is a once in a lifetime opportunity. If you can’t make her classes, check her out in Holiday Camp or during the summer at Culture Bugs!  Not to be missed!

Painter Sydney Chastain-Chapman returns home to HiArt! after a few years in the Dalton School art department. Catch her on Wednesdays after-school -- Go Syd! Your kids will LOVE working with her. Mine certainly did! (And learned a TON!) And catch Jess Levey for Photography and Video, Dalia Haber for Sculpture with recyclables, Johana Skalsky for supernal mixed media. Lisa Freedman will lead Arty-facts for kids of all ages : Ancient Egypt! Turn Barbie and Ken into mummies, sculpt scarabs, beads and sphinxes, become a wall painting & so much MORE. And if you're the parent of a wee person - Lisa's Letters does it all: grown-up and me classes with music, movement, hands-on art, gallery hops AND literacy!

The big big BIG news is that finally, after years of searching for just the right person to help us, the amazing actress and playwright, Romy Nordlinger - fresh from her success at the Fringe Festival -- will lead HiArt!'s theater program: Theater and Improv for Kids. Take a look at the info on our courses page, and take good note of the fact that parents are always invited to come and play!!!

By now you’ve probably figured out that HiArt! is not your neighborhood art program. The impact our work has made on the thousands of families who have crossed our threshold since 1997 is enormous. “HiArt! has changed our lives,” parents say, and children badger their parents until they can come back again and again. Which is why, in addition to all our regular classes, camps and activities, we’ve decided to bring another “child” into the world. Her name is Time In, and she’s devoted to bringing more HiArt! to more children in New York City than ever before.

Five years ago, The Time In Children’s Arts Initiative began bringing children out of at-risk schools and into HiArt! every single week as part of their regular school day. Not a modified, scaled-down HiArt! for poor kids, but exactly the same fabulous HiArt! that your own kids know and love. Opera ‘N Art, live performance, gallery hops and museum visits. The whole shebang. Every kid in the class, every single week of the school year. And the entire program is privately funded.

Making the world a better place for other people’s kids is the greatest gift we can give our own kids. Without your help we can’t make it happen. With your help we can change the world. Add your name to our list of donors in honor of your own child. Just click here to make an artful difference in some very wonderful — but hugely underserved - kids’ lives: www.hiartkids.com/

Then follow our amazing progress on Facebook -- and watch your dollars at work!

Think ahead to summer: registrations piled in this year for Culture Bugs! – HiArt!’s brilliant and exhilarating summer arts program for kids from 3-13. Children who love creating and exploring are in their element here. Every moment of our day is an adventure: whether it’s making art, dancing, interacting with music, visiting galleries, drawing, painting, thinking, playing or just hanging with new friends and shooting the breeze. Little kids come for half day with an adult companion; big kids – K and up – can come on their own for a full day of the “Best Children’s Arts Program” in New York.

Summer is prime HiArt! Time. Kids are rested and ready to make, see and do with gusto! Last year, Culture Bugs! kids were immersed in marvel after marvel: Firebird, Spectre de la Rose, the Magic Flute. Painting with Ellen, Sculpture with Nick, Manga with Yali, Video with Asya. This year? Wait and see! As always, the summer will be stacked with star-power artists in 2, 3 and 4D! hang onto your hats - more news to come! Keep your eyes open for details, registration opens November 15th for the summer! Be there or be square!

Since 1997 we‘ve been the city’s mainstay of real arts programming for young children. In fact, in a poll taken by Go City Kids, parents unequivocally answered that Hi Art! is the place to come to develop your kids’ “Inner Picasso.” As New York Magazine said, “It’s time to get with the plan.” If you and your child have never been here before, we look forward to welcoming you!

With promises for another magical year of the highest art at the Best Children’s Arts Program in New York!

Cyndie Bellen-Berthézène
Founder and Director
HiArt! + Time In

Order tickets now for the New Year's most fabulous Art Party!
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Amazing actress and playwright Romy Nordlinger will lead HiArt!'s theater program!
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Oranges for Fall fun! 
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Culture Bugs 2011!  
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They're Wild, They're Wacky: Check Out Our Holiday Camps!  More info >

Check it out: Cyndie writes 4 books for Scholastic’s KidSketch!  More info >

Check out the 2011 Time In Kids Auction
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