Upturn Arts

“After the draft of the 990 is completed, the executive committee and treasurer review and approve the 990 for board approval. The entire board receives an email of the completed draft of the 990 and are given time to address any concerns. If no concerns are addressed, the form 990 is filed.”

“Management monitors the conflict of interest policy.”

“The organization uses comparable data and internet research to help determine the compensation of officers and directors.”

“The organization makes its documents available to the public upon request.”

“Upturn arts is a fun creative program that teaches children in the new orleans community to explore and build confidence in themselves as artists. Our mission is to provide "arts for all."”

“Upturn arts is a fun and creative program that teaches children from the new orleans community to explore and to build confidence in themselves as artists. "when school's out, we're in!" upturn arts provides afterschool and day-long arts programming for youth ages 4-18 with classes in dance, music, visual arts and theater every day. Day-long camps are provided to families on a sliding scale through our creartive grants program. Based on annual income and household size, a portion of the cost of tuition is covered for families who qualify from 25-90% off. 50% of the young artists who attend upturn arts do so with a grant. Upturn arts believes all children should have access to the arts for both a creative and therapeutic outlet. All young artists are exposed to working professionals, either through our teaching staff or master artist series, to provide examples of how to be an artist for a living. Upturn arts also believes all teaching artists are artists first, teachers second and should be paid as masters of their craft.”

“As advised by the cdc and mayor's office, all upturn arts in-person programs scheduled for the spring and summer 2020 were canceledalong with those of all other providers of out-of-school enrichment programs. At upturn, when our ability to execute our in-person programming was disrupted in the spring, our administrative staff, teaching artists, and executive board strategized to create a virtual summer camp program for 2020, which we entitled u-turn. With a short turnaround time, we adapted our in-person lesson plans into 32 at-home, age-specific curricula based on the core standards of each grade level combined with our pre-planned summer camp themes. Additionally, we launched an educational youtube channel featuring lesson demonstrations by upturn arts staff and a few virtual workshops with our master guest artists, such as mike doussan, jamar pierre, and s. G. Clark. We successfully packaged and distributed 500 u-turn kits to families, complete with printed lesson plans and all supplies needed to complete each activity regardless of internet access. These kits were made available for pick-up at no cost to all upturn arts families that attended programs in 2019 and 2020. The initial run of 500 packets ran out quickly, and we were faced with a waiting list of around 300 families as well as a participation request from a local public school. Another 100 kits were later created and distributed in response to hurricane laura. Pending additional funding, we hope to continue printing and delivering these packets to children in the new orleans area (the video tutorials and pdfs of the booklets are also publicly available on our website at http://upturnarts.org/u-turn/ ). We are pleased with the success of this approach and, with the understanding that at-home options for youth may be an additional necessity for the foreseeable future, plan to develop more at-home programming curricula and materials. The virtual materials would be in addition to upturn art's in-person programming, which we intend to resume for summer camp in 2021.”