Ourstory

Art Reach was born out of a desire to offer free and non-coercive educational experiences. During the years before the Rhizome began, some of its founders had organized successful skill-share classes at a different location. Covering a variety of topics, these classes were taught by volunteers and were free and open to the public. This Free Skool continued throughout the first two years of the Collective. Classes ranged from womens self defense and native medicinal herb identification to stained glass, figure drawing and African drumming. This tradition of free skill-share classes was continued in the Free Skool for the Arts, funded by the City of Austins Cultural Contracts Program in 2003.

For the spring of 2004, we changed the Free Skool for the Arts into after-school art classes at Allan Elementary. The program was also funded by Cultural Contracts. We have applied for another city contract for after school classes during the 2004-5 school year under the name Art Reach.