Piscataqua Savings Bank is the proud supporter of over 110 Seacoast area nonprofits. We’re highlighting a few of the nonprofits doing incredible, critical work in our Seacoast community with our Seacoast Spotlight Series. Next up in our spotlight is Arts In Reach.
Since 1997, Arts In Reach (AIR) has engaged teens from southeastern New Hampshire and Maine in community arts programs and mentoring after school and during vacations. AIR integrates visual, performing, and literary arts with group mentoring by professional artists, cultural field trips, and community service. Some of AIR’s recent projects include a wearable art workshop series, where participants learn techniques for repairing and upcycling clothing culminating in an unconventional fashion show, and an acting and character creation series conducted at the Garrison Players Arts Center in Rollinsford, NH in which participants learned how to do stage combat with foam swords, how to fall safely, and wrote monologues. AIR’s innovative programming encourages teens to discover, create, grow, and thrive while exposing them to local arts organizations, local artists and makers, and the myriad of local arts resources available.
Who Is Arts In Reach For?
AIR programs are for teenage girls and trans, nonbinary, and gender expansive youth ages 11-22 years-old who feel like AIR is the right community for them. AIR is a community that gives teens and young adults hope and celebrates their unique abilities, interests, and personalities, ultimately creating pathways to greater opportunities for their future education, career, and life. Teens struggling with behavioral and mental health challenges can find a supportive, welcoming, and inclusive community with AIR.
AIR is committed to closing opportunity gaps for teens who face inequities and lack access to high-quality programming based on gender identity, health, neurodiversity, race, religion, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. In order to make AIR’s programs accessible to all, programs are free and include transportation assistance.
Arts In Reach Impact
Today, AIR serves approximately 100 teens annually, with over 50% participating in multiple programs. As of 2020, AIR has empowered over 1,800 teens of southeastern New Hampshire and Maine, primarily from lower-income and vulnerable backgrounds. Additionally, almost 70% of participants rely on AIR’s free transportation to access our programs. AIR alumni volunteer at a rate three times that of their peers. 75% of AIR alumni vote, more than twice the national average for 18-24 year old women.
How to Support Arts In Reach
Piscataqua Savings Bank is a proud supporter of AIR’s mission to inspire teenage girls and gender-expansive youth to be brave, elevate their voices, and create the lives they imagine. AIR relies on community support to provide visual, performing, and literary arts programming with group mentoring by professional artists, cultural field trips, and community service. Visit Arts In Reach online to donate or to learn more about how to support Arts In Reach.
Back to News and Insights