The Stella Adler Arts Justice Division
The Stella Adler Studio of Acting’s Arts Justice Division (formerly Outreach) offers multiple free programs that provide transformative educational experiences to New York’s most severely underserved citizens. Through this program, we aim to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline by serving people who are impacted by poverty and who are justice-involved. This nearly 20-year-old program is offered out of an urgent need to fulfill our mission and build the world we want to live in tomorrow today. These goals are achieved through four major initiatives:
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- Adler Youth
- Summer Shakespeare
- New York City Department of Correction partnership
- Ritual4Return and Outside/In re-entry programs
- Community Collaborations
Since 2004 nearly 5,000 New Yorkers have been served. An ambassador program also allows conservatory students and alumni to serve as volunteers and apply their craft through the Division’s field work.
Arts Justice helps to fulfill the Studio’s mission to create an environment that nurtures theater artists who value humanity as their first priority by creating an environment for all students to become actors like Stella Adler and those in the Group Theater – actors who are socially and consciously aware and whose awareness contributes to their ability to act passionately.
In addition to the Arts Justice Division’s historic $1 million investment in free programs for people impacted by poverty, the studio has granted an additional $1 million in need-based scholarships to graduates of this program in the past 20 years alone; these scholarships are provided out of an urgent sense of fulfilling our mission and building an arts institution for all.
Advisory Board
Benicio del Toro, Honorary Chair
Whoopi Goldberg
Herb Kohl
Matthew Modine
Julianne Moore
