Stella Adler Studio Receives $110K For Outreach Work With Underserved In NYC

The Stella Adler Studio of Acting announced today that it has been awarded grants from three different organizations to continue their work with inmate populations at Rikers Island Correctional Facility. This is the second consecutive year that each organization has awarded grants to the Studio in support of their transformational theatre work with underserved populations in New York City. New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) awarded the Studio $10,000 to continue its work with transgender women at Rikers Island Correctional Facility, where the Studio will continue to provide free, ongoing theatre and acting programming for transgender inmates in protective custody.

The grant was given through NYSCA's Special Arts Services (SAS), which supports programs that engage the arts to address the changing needs of New York's most vulnerable populations, including court, jail, and prison-involved juveniles and adults. A $70,000 anonymous grant will support the Studio's theatre work with adult and youth inmates at Rikers Island. The grant will also support the expansion of the Studio's Outside/In re-entry program, which provides free continuing arts education to any students who participated in the Studio's theatre programming while an inmate. The program aims to continue using the power of theatre to support and nurture students rehabilitation and redemption upon re-entry into society. The NYC Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) has also awarded the Studio $30,000 for their work at Rikers Island; the Adler Youth and Summer Shakespeare programs for NYC high school students living at or below the poverty line; Company Tour, which brings abridged, accessible versions of well-known Shakespeare plays to NYC schoolchildren; and the Playwrights Division, which supports emerging playwrights.

"We are so honored and grateful to receive the support of these outstanding organizations to continue the programming of our Outreach and Playwrights divisions," said Tom Oppenheim, Artistic Director, Stella Adler Studio of Acting. "We believe in the power of the arts to educate, inspire and rehabilitate, and are grateful to our donors for continuing to support this necessary work."

The Stella Adler Studio of Acting was founded in 1949 on the principle that growth as an actor and growth as a human being are synonymous. The mission of the Studio is to create an environment that nurtures theater artists and audiences so that they value humanity, their own and others, as their first priority while providing art and education to the greater community. The Stella Adler Studio of Acting's Outreach Division works with numerous underserved populations including inner-city students, drug and rehabilitation centers and inmates on Rikers Island.