Photo by Nicole Williams
The Sculpture Studio of the School of Contemporary Arts donated a substantial amount of unused art supplies to Urban Promise this past summer. Urban Promise is an after school arts program located in a low-income area in Camden. The supplies included paints, crayons, craft items, paper, glue and various other materials.
Joel Weissman, an assistant professor of art at Ramapo, found a large amount of supplies that were “better suited for younger children rather than college students,” according to a press release by Ramapo. As opposed to discarding the supplies, both Weissman and Steven Perry, dean of the School of Contemporary Arts, chose to donate them. After some research was done by Maria Lizzi, a secretary of the department, the staff at Urban Promise was contacted. They accepted the supplies happily and drove the two hours to Ramapo themselves to pick them up.
“I think that’s very nice of the school to donate unneeded materials rather than to throw it away,” said senior Jenn Zgola. “It’ll be put to good use.”
Robert Kelleher, the K-12 art teacher at Urban Promise, had been paying for all the art supplies he used in his classes out of pocket, as a result of not being given him a budget to work with, according to the press release. Kelleher was grateful for the highly needed supplies Ramapo has donated to them.
The students at Ramapo have had an overwhelmingly positive reaction to this.
“That’s awesome,” said Cristina Horuzy, a sophomore. “We are donating unneeded supplies to younger kids who will be grateful to have them, especially because arts are starting to be cut from some schools. The supplies will be used to promote creative minds, and the kids will be putting their energy into their artwork in a structured environment after school. I'm glad we decided to donate supplies college students wouldn't use.”
Junior James Perlas was impressed by the donation as well.
“I think that's spectacular. Any time a donation of that size is made, it's a huge boon for whatever charitable organization is being donated to. Ramapo has a comfortable standard of wealth, so I think it's great that we're taking some of that and using it to help others who may not have as many chances,” he said.
Junior Kelly Jenssen is proud to come from a school that was able to make a difference like this in the lives of so many children.
"I think it's remarkable that the School of Contemporary Arts was willing to donate unneeded art supplies to Urban Promise,” Jenssen added.
All around, this donation from Ramapo has been met with outstanding appreciation from the Ramapo community.
lheckelm@ramapo.edu
