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The Community Arts Program (CAP)

CAP is the arts education outreach program of The Creatives Project. TCP's Studio Artist Residents complete their community outreach requirement through this program. TCP provides students, teachers, and communities with direct hands-on arts experiences through personal interaction with artists. TCP encourages each artist to explore his/her discipline with students, teachers, and community members through a variety of components that may include workshops, classes, lectures and discussions, rehearsals, performances, community events, and mentorship.

For the 2026-2027 residency cycle, TCP is partnering with ChopArt, an organization that promotes dignity, community, and opportunity for middle and high school–aged youth experiencing homelessness through multidisciplinary arts immersion and mentorship.

Artists in the cohort lead ChopArt’s Creative Toolkit, a trauma-informed visual arts program designed specifically for these youth. Throughout the residency, TCP artists work closely with ChopArt teens through hands-on workshops in photography, collage, clay, portraiture, and experimental making practices. More than art instruction, these sessions became spaces for self-expression, confidence-building, collaboration, and community care.

The outreach culminates with Dual Concepts, a teen art exhibition presented by ChopArt in partnership with Atlanta Mission My Sister’s House, and The Creatives Project. The exhibition highlights the incredible work created by teens alongside TCP resident artists.

The exhibition will feature photography, painting, collage, and ceramic works created by the students over the course of the program. For many of the teens involved, Dual Concepts represents the first time their work is being publicly exhibited and offered for sale. We hope you’ll join us in celebrating their creativity, supporting their voices, and helping us fill the room with encouragement and community - every cent from art sales goes directly back to the teens.


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YOUTH:

We aim to develop arts/music education programming specifically for highly under served neighborhoods in Metro Atlanta by offering CAP programming to schools, community centers and neighborhoods with very high concentrations of children living in low income situations who may also have disabilities or other developmental delays. In conjunction with the Board of Education, these programs aim to help students develop a creative voice. It is our belief that by giving children an opportunity to explore vairious means of expression, they will become better equipped to face life’s challenges.

In conjunction with the educational program, a mentorship program has been developed to pair artists with at-risk youth, providing support and guidance for children to explore creative passions, ultimately building strong relationships that positively impact children's lives.

ADULT:

We aim to develop arts/music education programming specifically for our community at large through the creation and implementation of an adult education program consisting of studio classes, workshops, lectures, and open studio visits conducted by CCHP residents.

This program utilizes the talents and special skills of all TCP artist in residency program participants as each is required to give back to their local community through arts based outreach. We continue to develop our educational programs with the above goals in mind.

IMPACT:

Since 2011, TCP has presented dozens of exhibitions and served nearly 70 artists through residency opportunities who have volunteered thousands of arts service hours to help hundreds of underserved youth and seniors realize their creative dreams through one-on-one professional artist mentorship.

TCP's beneficiary organizations have included a number of area neighborhoods and schools, One Love Generation, VSA Arts of Georgia, Street Smart Youth Project, Blueprint 58, Paint Love, Big Bethel AME Church, Operation P.E.A.C.E. and Columbia Residential. (CLICK THE LINKS FOR IMAGE GALLERIES)

Capturing Community SW ATL- Bridge Building Through Story in the Digital Age...

...is an arts and technology centered outreach program focused on visual storytelling and social connectedness via the documentary arts.

This project illuminates Pittsburgh, Adair Park, Capitol View, and Capitol View Manor’s rich history to build community bridges into the future inspired by personal stories of the past. By bringing local artists and residents together through interviews and intimate photography, the project empowers elders and youth to capture and share personal narratives.

TCP youth beneficiaries of Blueprint 58-Adair Park participate in "Capturing Community" funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.

TCP youth beneficiaries of Blueprint 58-Adair Park participate in "Capturing Community" funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Neighborhood residents are the core of Capturing Community. TCP places major focus on nurturing relationships, building community, and encouraging feedback to frame its programs. Our role as a cultural agent reaches far beyond TCP’s everyday programming. We build long lasting authentic friendships with our outreach communities, artists, partners, patrons, and community leaders. We encourage their connections to each other, collaborations, and the expansion of dialogue. We invite these groups to introduce us to their audiences and vice versa. This dynamic allows everyone to take part in our process of community building with a sense of ownership and pride.

A Community Connection Council has been established to support Capturing Community. The council includes residents of the area who not only possess a deep knowledge of the community’s historical and cultural data, they are passionate individuals with strong community and social ties that span the breadth of the area. Youth participants are recruited and recommended by the council as well as interviewees who live and work in the area. The council further helps to engage the community at large through the disbursement of invitations to residents to attend workshops, exhibitions, and discussions. Local business involvement is encouraged through the hosting of events and workshops. Are you a resident of the above mentioned neighborhoods? JOIN OUR COUNCIL.

THE IMAGES & TEXT BELOW ARE SAMPLES FROM OUR OLD FOURTH WARD PROJECT:

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WE NEED YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT!

We want to expand our reach into specific, highly under served neighborhoods in Metro Atlanta by offering the Capture to schools, community centers and neighborhoods with very high concentrations of children living in low income situations who may also have disabilities or other developmental delays. We want to build new perspectives in communities that may struggle with outdated archetypes. We want to teach youth, who have embraced technology, to use it to affect change in their own neighborhoods, on their own terms.

Funding for this program was provided by The National Endowment for the Arts.

Funding for this program was provided by The National Endowment for the Arts.

Capturing Community O4W - Bridge Building Through Story in the Digital Age...

...is an arts and technology centered outreach program focused on visual storytelling and social connectedness via the documentary art

CAPTURE empowers youth in Atlanta’s most impoverished neighborhoods to document and share their stories of community through personal interviews and intimate photography. The results are shared with residents and businesses to cultivate a stronger sense of community and connection.

TCP resident mentor Masud Olufani discussing community engagement and neighborhood interviews with students.

TCP resident mentor Masud Olufani discussing community engagement and neighborhood interviews with students.

THE PILOT PROGRAM:

In 2013 TCP launched the Capture Project with the youth of Big Bethel AME Church and Perkerson Elementary school its been a success ever since! Please check out behind the scenes images from our time with these young talents!

CAPTURING COMMUNITY ONGOING WORKSHOPS:

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The CAPTURE Project's workshop series engages youth throughout Atlanta and equips them with necessary skills to create imagery connecting them to a rapidly disappearing culture. Gentrification has resulted in the displacement and loss of oral and cultural history in many of our neighborhoods. The foundational focus of the CAPTURE Project is to use photography and videography as media for underserved youth to preserve the past and guide the future of their surrounding neighborhoods.

Check out behind the scenes images from CAPTURE. Click here for a full size image gallery.

The participants in the CAPTURE Project — student photographers, interviewees, exhibit hosts and attendees, partnering organizations, and policy makers — will make connections. By selecting exhibit hosts and partners such as the Atlanta Regional Commission and Jamestown, the CAPTURE Project aims to highlight the people whose names, faces, and stories will be impacted by the changes in O4W. 

By sustaining the quality of the social community, not just a physical community, among long-time residents and newer residents, the CAPTURE Project creates a bridge between neighbors. While languages, religious beliefs, ethnicities, and identities differ, our hope is that their communal goals are congruent and our project will further align them.