What is Pathways of Art?
Pathways of Art is a student-led initiative supported by Bard College’s Trustee Leader Scholar (TLS) Program, dedicated to making artistic opportunities more accessible to local communities.
We organize free visual arts, music, and cultural workshops in collaboration with artists, students, and community organizations. Our workshops are thoughtfully constructed to introduce participants to different materials, techniques, and artistic traditions while leaving room for experimentation and collaboration.
We believe everyone has something creative to offer, but not everyone has the same opportunities to discover it. By creating spaces for self-expression, we hope to ignite a passion for art that extends beyond our workshops.
Why we created Pathways of Art
As first-generation college students with artistic backgrounds, we both arrived at college feeling unprepared and unaware of many of the resources and opportunities available to us. Over time, we came to realize how much a single course, an encouraging professor, or even one conversation could change someone's trajectory.
This led us to sit down with a simple question: how could we give back to our communities by sharing the knowledge and opportunities we had gained, particularly the confidence to pursue a creative path?
From that conversation, Pathways of Art was born.
While our vision was big, we knew we had to start small. We began by organizing free workshops, bringing together students, artists, and community members to share knowledge and skills. Our hope is to gradually build a big network of artists and creatives from various paths that are willing to support one another, whether through workshops, mentorship, or a single conversation. In just over a year, our team has grown from two to ten people, and we're excited to see this project expand!
