Where We Are
Community Information
The map below shows the city of Providence divided up by neighborhood. Community MusicWorks after-school programming serves the families of Providence’s West End, South Side, Elmwood, and Olneyville neighborhoods.
In the map below, households of children participating in Community MusicWorks after-school programming are identified by blue stars. Neighborhood teaching and performance venues are also identified.
Demographic Information
The neighborhoods served by Community MusicWorks are rich in cultural diversity, yet they are among the poorest communities in Rhode Island:
| Community Demographics | Our Students | Our Neighborhoods* |
| Latino/Latina | 51% | 52% |
| African American | 16% | 21% |
| Caucasian | 16% | 12% |
| Asian | 5% | 9% |
| Other Racial Designation | 12% | 6% |
| Community Need Indicators | Our Neighborhoods* | Providence* | RI* |
| Childhood Poverty | 42% | 35% | 14% |
| Median Household Income | $21,616 | $26,867 | $42,029 |
| Rates of Births to Teenage Mothers | 21% | 17% | 10% |
*Source for Demographics and Need Indicators Statistics: “Residents and Data: Making the Connection,” a report prepared by the Providence Local Learning Partnership, September 2002.
Community Partners
Community MusicWorks is proud to collaborate with some of our neighbor organizations also serving the West End and South Side of Providence. Past collaborations include working with Community Works RI , a community development organization, to produce a concert and sound installation in a formerly distressed home about to be renovated, and we worked with SWAP: Stop Wasting Abandoned Property, also a community development corporation, to produce a series of concerts and student artist residencies in a SWAP storefront on Broad Street. We’ve also shared our music at many West Broadway Neighborhood Association events, from neighborhood yard sales to their annual meetings. Our partnerships extend city wide as well, performing with WaterFire, co-commissioning works and performing with FirstWorks, and working as a member of the Providence Youth Arts Collaborative (PYAC).
The Providence Youth Arts Collaborative is a partnership of non-profit community-based arts organizations using arts education as a strategy to empower the youth of Providence and greater Rhode Island. The Providence Youth Arts Collaborative consists of 6 organizations that provide over 8,000 hours of free arts education to over 1,600 youth each year.
The purpose of the Collaborative is to improve the effectiveness and build the capacity of our arts education programs through:
1. Sharing professional development and learning opportunities
2. Increasing visibility of community arts programs for youth, and
3. Identifying opportunities and financial support for member organizations.
PYAC envisions Providence as a city in which youth are a driving force in a thriving arts and cultural community. There will be a new generation of creative thinkers and leaders who have participated in youth arts programs that exhibit best practices. And, this partnership among youth arts organizations will prove to be an effective vehicle toward this vision.
PYAC consists of six organizations:
AS220 Youth, a transitional arts program that employs and engages Rhode Island youth, but focuses specifically on those recently released from the state’s Juvenile Detention Facility, the Rhode Island Training School (R.I.T.S.).
Community MusicWorks, a string quartet in permanent residence in an urban neighborhood that teaches music to young people, performs locally, mentors their students, and organizes community events for entire families.
Everett Dance Theatre, a professional dance and multimedia company that builds long-term relationships with urban youth through professional mentorship, including the opportunity to create and perform.
Manton Avenue Project, a program for youth living in Providence’s Olneyville neighborhood, modeled on New York City’s 52nd Street Project, in which adult theater artists team up with kids to create original theater.
New Urban Arts, an interdisciplinary arts studio where emerging artists and high school students practice powerful mentoring relationships as they work toward a lifelong creative practice.
Providence CityArts for Youth, a community-based arts center that connects youth ages 8-14 with free, professional arts learning experiences that are inspired by the creative process of art-making—in visual arts and design, performing arts, and creative writing—and the exploration of ideas and concepts that shape our communities and everyday lives.