Come be a part of ASTEP’s longest partnership! 

ASTEP is proud to partner with enFAMILIA – a community organization that builds healthy family relationships among immigrant, migrant, and farm worker communities of South Florida – for more than 15 years!

ASTEP Volunteer Teaching Artists will join a local team to support a 4 week arts-based summer camp in Homestead, Florida! Camp activities have included everything from making ice cream to staging a mini-production of Annie to collaborating on amazing murals! An AIA camp day is a day full of fun!

ASTEP Artists will lead classes and large group activities, assist in camp management, and truly be a part of the life of this Florida community. Being a part of this camp is an opportunity to be a part of a new family. Share your art, and share in the AIA love!

APPLY NOW!

Dates: June 2019

Application Deadline: April 1, 2019

Location: Homestead, Florida

Who: You! All artists with a passion for making a difference!

People of color, LGBTQ+, those with disabilities, and anyone excited to work with us are strongly encouraged to apply.

** Housing, flights, and food are provided for all Volunteer Teaching Artists

** Email Sami Manfredi at sami@asteponline.org or give us a ring at 212.921.1227 to learn more!

This summer, ASTEP is sending four Guest Teaching Artists to support Art-in-Action, a 4-week arts camp for elementary and middle school students in South Florida. Primarily coming from low income, immigrant and migrant families, students at Art-in-Action learn not only the arts, but healthy relationship skills, nutrition basics, stress and anger management, and confidence to be the best possible versions of themselves.

Dates: Two options: June 16 – July 2 OR July 2 – July 16
Application deadline: ASAP
Location: Homestead, Florida
Who: Any and all artists are welcome!

** Airfare, room and board is provided by ASTEP and enFAMILIA for all Volunteer Artists
** Email Lizzy Rainer at lizzy@asteponline.org or give us a ring at 212.921.1227 to learn more!

Hey everyone!

Welcome to our Arts-in-Action 2013 camp blog!

Led by a team of 21 Volunteer Artists, ASTEP and our partner, enFAMILIA, delivered Art-in-Action, a 6-week arts camp that brought a dynamic visual and performing arts experience to 120 youth from the immigrant and migrant communities of Deep South Miami-Dade. Art-in-Action is all about providing a safe space for high school and middle school youth so they can come together to create, develop artistic skills, and grow personally and emotionally.

Students signed up for a variety of classes, including Music, Drama, Dance, Visual Art, and Musical Theater. A few of the elective classes that were offered featured Screen Printing, Clowning, Poetry, and Breakdancing. Enjoy the photos, videos, and testimonials!

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Week 1

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Week 2

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Week 3

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Week 4

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Week 5

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Week 6

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** None of this would be possible without dedication and talent of our amazing Volunteer Artist Team: Linnell Truchon (Theatre), Maria Arvanitakis (Theatre), Kelcie Miles (Theatre), Bronte Velez (Dance), Lili Froehlich (Dance), Kentaley McCurdy (Dance), Jess Bush (Music), Elise Conklin (Music), Luz De La Cruz (Music), Vera Johnson (Visual Art), Khaled Hassan (Visual Art), Emma Johnson (Visual Art), Sebastian Acosta (Culinary Arts), Samip Raval (Guest Artist), Andrew Cohen (Guest Artist), Oscar Trujillo (Guest Artist), Brendan Spieth (Guest Artist), Kyle Netzeband (Guest Artist), Maria Avonce, (On-Site Administrator), Allison Gibbons (On-Site Administrator), Blake Wales (On-Site Administrator), Abby Gerdts (ASTEP Program Director)

ASTEP Volunteer Artist Team

This year, The Kennedy Center and ASTEP awarded two (2) scholarships at the Kennedy Center American College Theater National Festival for students to participate, fully-funded, in one of ASTEP’s programs in the U.S. and around the world. This year’s recipients were playwright Louisa Hill and actor, Michael Pfeiffer. Check out their updates: 

Louisa is currently volunteering in our program in Quito, Ecuador through partner organization, Project CREO, where we provide in-school and after-school art programs for at-risk youth living in the Central Historic District of Quito.

“Greetings from Quito! I’m writing to extend an enormous thank you…for the grant to work with Artists Striving to End Poverty. I arrived in Quito several weeks ago to work with CREO Arte, an organization that seeks to inspire and empower kids through artistic expression. I’ve been honored to be a witness to the important work CREO Arte is doing and to make global connections with so many others who see the importance of art education. I hope that this is the start of many other collaborations with them and with ASTEP.

Thank you for recognizing the important work that ASTEP is doing and for offering me the chance to join them. I’m immensely grateful for this opportunity.”

Michael volunteered this summer in our Art-in-Action summer camp in south Florida, through partner organization, enFAMILIA, where we provide a six-week arts summer camp for immigrant and migrant youth.

“Volunteering with ASTEP and Art-in-Action this summer truly was life changing for me. ASTEP prepares you to ‘learn as much as you have to give,’ and I feel as though I learned a lot more than what I gave to the youth we worked with. … Many of the kids I worked with had amazing and troubling journeys, and Art-in-Action gave them a chance to dance, sing, act, and paint out their stories. It became a way of expressing and bonding in a very safe and nurturing environment. You as the volunteer artist become a vehicle for all of the youth to play, discover, and grow through the arts.

I would recommend any passionate artist, no matter what your discipline, take the time to experience what ASTEP has to offer. It sincerely is one of the most challenging and gratifying experiences of a lifetime.”

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A huge thank you to Yazmany Arboleda, an ASTEP volunteer and multimedia artist extraordinaire, for creating this colorful and enthusiastic video highlighting our programs over the years. For some of you, this will be a trip down memory lane since some of the images captured here are from the very beginning of ASTEP! Enjoy!!