Arts Street

Stella Yu founded Arts Street in 1995 as a division of the City and County of Denver’s Office of Workforce Development. It began as a means to assist low-income youth direct their natural talents and curiosity into professional endeavors. Arts Street was transformed into a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization known as Friends of Arts Street in 2003. Friends of Arts Street started to provide standard-based courses and cross-disciplinary enrichment activities in borrowed spaces, such as schools and community groups. They eventually moved to a permanent location in the La Alma (also known as the Lincoln) neighborhood in 2012. Over the years, Arts Street’s art education has won numerous awards, including the 2004 Coming to a Taller Award and a 2008 US Department of Labor Workforce Innovation Grant (Wired). They founded their current location at La Alma in 2012 thanks to the "Our Town" grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, one of only sixty in the nation. DHA also partners with us, offering opportunities to the youth from the most vulnerable populations. These initiatives seek to empower and cultivate these young people to become the future professionals and unleash their creativity for the benefit of their working environments. This is achieved through the creation and implementation of high-quality career-based education programs that combine real-world learning with artistic expression and creative thought. This approach has enabled us to teach critical and creative thinking to young people, in particular those who find it difficult to connect through traditional learning paths and the ones who lack family support. Arts Street participants are granted the opportunity to find out how creativity could assist them in changing their lives and careers.