HiArt! is having a baby...

. . . her name is TIME IN and she needs your help.

Meet our beautiful new baby: Time In. She’s a fabulous, energetic, young outreach program that has been doing something incredible for the little kids at PS 241 in West Harlem for over a year, and is about to start helping hte kids at PS 242 as well…

HiArt! -- one day a week – for a full half-day – during their regular school day -- out in the real world -- for a whole year!

Beginning October, all the kids in pre-K, Kindergarten and First Grade at PS 241 plus all the Kindergarteners at PS 242 will come out of their regular classrooms and spend one morning or afternoon a week at HiArt! Listening to Massenet's Cendrillon and making art at our studio or sketching at museums and galleries – the same exact way that kids at HiArt! have been doing for years. They’ll even get their own art supplies to take home with them, so they can draw and draw to their heart’s content.

Time In is about opening doors for kids in underserved schools and letting them know that the whole incredible world out there also belongs to them. That there is a way – through the arts -- in which imagination and reality can work together – for them! So that before you know it, we will have created a whole a new generation of wonderful thinkers, arts lovers and young artists, each of whom will be poised to enrich the world around them with their unique insights and talents.

The Board of Education has given us their blessings, the New York Foundation for the Arts has awarded me an Individual Artist’s Fiscal Sponsorship, and all we need to add to the equation is your financial support!

You know how it is with babies – those first weeks, months and years are the crucial moments for the development of your child’s brain. And so it is with Time In as well. In order to get this project totally funded over the next four weeks we’d like to call upon your sense of community and your love of HiArt! to help spread the word: every dollar you contribute will make Time In not only an immediate reality for some very appreciative kids, but will move us closer to making this kind of education part of what all children can expect to receive in the future.

Two simple steps:

1. Send money and send it NOW! Our goal is $395,000. The Time In Children¹s Arts Initiative is a sponsored project of the New York Foundation for the Arts, and all contributions are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. And every single donor will be recognized on our website!

Checks should be made payable to NYFA with Time In on the note line (not as the payee of the check) and mailed to:

Time In at HiArt!
260 W. 54 St. #36C
New York, NY 10019.

OR

credit card donations can be made online through NYFA:

(http://www.nyfa.org/level3.asp?id=226&fid=1&sid=44)

For all online donations, please be sure to indicate:

Artist: Cyndie Bellen-Berthézène
Project: Time In

Please notify us via email of any donations made online.

Any contribution for more than $2500 should be accompanied by a letter stating that you wish the contribution to be used to support Time In. You’ll find a sample donation letter on the Time In page of our website that you can just download and fill in to make life easier.

Then, click on the Just to Let You Know I Contributed link -- that will help me keep track of everything and I can put your – or your company’s name onto the list of supporters ASAP!

And don't forget to check with your company to see if they do matching contributions -- What could better speed us along to our goal than doubling your dollars!

2. Spread the word

Tell your friends, your friends’ friends, or give me their names and I’ll tell them!

The wider our band of supporters, the greater our chances are for extending the magic. If you or your friends need more info, you’ll find it right here on the Time In page of our website. And I’m available, as always, to talk to anyone who needs some ra-ra-ing!

I’m thanking you right this second, before you even write your check, because I’m so sure that together we can pull this together – with room to spare – by my birthday on September 15th. Now would that be a birthday present or what?????

Wishing you all a wonderful fin de summer!

Cyndie

Catherine Starkman for Time In
May 2007