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NYC Salt’s mission is to engage, inspire, and empower youth from underserved, predominantly immigrant communities in New York City to reach their full potential and develop a sense of agency, belonging, and integrated identity through the lens of a camera.
We place a high value on community-building and students say that Salt is their family. Salt is led by creative professionals utilizing their talent, expertise, and social capital to provide opportunities and create a pipeline from high school to college to careers in the creative industries. We think of Salt as a bridge, a launchpad, and a family.
Your collective dollars go toward supporting our free programs for students, developing the professional skills and confidence that will guide them to a better future.
NYC Salt programs incorporate a unique, holistic blend of photography and video programming, 1:1 mentoring, college preparation, internship matching, career exposure, and vocational training. Programs are multi-year and sequential, designed to level the playing field and provide a high level of after-school visual arts education for 14- to 24-year-old students of diverse backgrounds from the NYC public school system.
NYC SALT creates opportunities in visual arts and pathways to college and career for underserved NYC youth from diverse backgrounds who are dedicated to careers in the arts, by engaging them in a rigorous blend of professional photography instruction, college-prep workshops, and career exposure.
We achieve this through multi-year, rigorous, sequential photography and video instruction taught by artists and industry professionals combined with individualized mentoring, college preparation and guidance, career exploration, employment opportunities, and vocational training.
Young people from underserved neighborhoods need quality arts programs and career exposure, help with college preparation, and opportunities for employment in the creative economy.
Data shows the number of at-risk youth in New York City is on the rise. One out of every 10 students in New York City lived in temporary housing in 2017-2018, and the number of youth aged 16-24 not enrolled in school or working is higher than the national average.
For children of color, these numbers are even greater. In schools, the racial achievement gap, strongly linked to racial socio-economic disparities in the state, has recently worsened, furthering an already weak opportunity gap.
And despite the increased awareness of diversity issues in the creative industries, the workforce remains 24% less racially and culturally diverse than other industries.
NYC SALT aims to change these odds, one student at a time, contributing toward healthier financial futures and a more inclusive industry.
Some statistics:
Our first cohort of college students graduated in 2015. Since then, 100% of our college graduates are employed or freelancing in their field of study. We have watched and stood by them in their successes and failures professionally and see the growing need for professional development among our 18-24-year-old students. Launching into any career is challenging for a young person, but launching into a creative career — coming from a low-income household and without the social capital to make introductions — is near impossible. In most industries, but especially in the creative industry, getting ahead or just getting seen is all about who you know. We work to fill the opportunity gap.
NYC Salt started in 2008 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and grew out of a small after‐school photography class in Washington Heights offered by Executive Director Alicia Hansen, a professional photographer with more than 24 years of experience. Alicia understood that photography and an understanding of the visual industry could be a catalyst to expand life possibilities for underserved youth through exposure to the arts, digital technology, academic preparation, and access to professional networks. The organization was officially launched in 2008 and has grown and thrived over the last 11 years. NYC Salt now serves 150 youth annually — in our own studio as well as in schools and community centers — year-round.
Using high-end, professional photography equipment, top instructors in their field, and extremely dedicated mentors combined with college preparation, our students have gained the skills and confidence to pursue a higher education and career. We hold students to high standards of professionalism and excellence as we provide them the tools for success — personal, academic, and professional.
“When we first started the program, Alicia brought photo books and I was deeply moved by an Avedon book and one of Alicia’s photographs.
It was the first time I saw fine art that touched me, was the first time I saw something that was beautiful for the sake of being beautiful. It gave focus to my life because it made me want to harness the ability to create things that moved other people.
I felt seen by adults at Salt. In every way Salt was offering things I was not getting at home.
If not for Salt, I would have probably been down low now, working in a government job — life would be a lot sadder and much more trapped. I was able to do the hard work of exploring who I was and what I wanted because of Salt.
Salt asked the question, put pressure and expectation on going to college — which no one had done before. Salt laid the seeds but I had to find my way. Salt put things into place for it to happen, but Salt wasn’t involved in laying of the bricks. I did that.”
- Devin Osorio, SCAD Graduate, Textile Designer, Painter
www.devinosorio.com
We measure success through our college acceptances which are at 100%.
We measure success through our alumni who are graduating and getting their first jobs in the creative industry (89%).
We measure success through student publication in the New York Times, New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Time, and many others, as well as freelance jobs in advertising and commercial work.
Our students are developing the skills, knowledge, and mindsets to become successful entrepreneurs.
We want to help underserved young people create a better life by opening pathways into the best colleges and opportunities for employment in the creative economy and for them to earn a good living doing something that they are delighted to do when they wake up every morning for the rest of their lives.
By designing a program that helps students thrive through the development of agency, belonging, and integrated identity, we create a framework for whole student success. We want to unlock full potential by dismantling barriers and unlocking opportunities. We want our students to feel hope and optimism by helping them get into college, win art awards, build confidence, have access to arts education, be seen and heard, celebrating their work and vision in large public gallery shows. We want to help create pathways to give our young people incredible platforms in the media to share their perspectives and shape culture.
Salt alum Malike Sidibe used his skills to speak out about the protests and Black Lives Matter movement in June 2020 features in Time magazine, the New York Times Magazine, and the Washington Post. Here is a link to one of these inspirational pieces:
https://www.nytimes.com/intera...
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