Launching in 2012, Northrise Arts Educational Foundation (Northrise Arts) will provide high quality visual art education programs to children and youth living in poverty in Zambia. Northrise Arts programs will provide its participants opportunities and resources to develop creative and innovative thinking strategies and curriculum that will help build integrity and character development. When Nort
hrise Arts is first launched, programs will be available to orphans being served at the Mapalo School and Mackenzie Center in Ndola, Zambia. Visual art education is not currently or has ever been available to this population. Northrise Arts will offer three distinct programs: Traditional Visual Art, Faith-Based Art, and Art Leadership. Northrise Arts will accomplish its mission by bringing art education students from the United States to partner with the educators at Mapalo School and Mackenzie Center. They will teach 10-day intensive courses four times per year to the children and youth. This model not only benefits the children and youth of Ndola, Zambia but also provides learning opportunities for U.S.-based art education students. Students and faculty from the University of Minnesota and Mankato State University will be the first to teach Northrise Arts’ unique curriculum. As Northrise Arts grows, it will bring continuing arts education opportunities to adult students studying education at Northrise University in Zambia. These efforts will allow arts programming at Mapalo School and Mackenzie Center to be sustainable. In addition, Northrise Arts has a vision to offer programs year-round and broaden its base of participants beyond Ndola, Zambia to include children and youth living in poverty across Africa and Europe. Lastly, it will broaden its partnership beyond Minnesota to include students from additional art education programs across the United States.
