PenPal Arts Share
Expanding world-views and exploring empathy across cultures through the arts
The Program
This art-sharing program connects Los Angeles elementary and middle schoolers with youth from all over the world. Fostering global gratitude, awareness, understanding, and learning, this program broadens each child’s worldview through creativity and friendship. Each month, the children create a themed piece of art on a postcard to send to their international penpal. Questions are exchanged with each postcard and the experience encourages young people to appreciate the differences and similarities between their penpal’s life and their own. Sometimes the art exchange extends beyond postcards—in a world of increasingly virtual interactions, Arts Bridging the Gap is expanding this cultural exchange to include other forms of expression, such as dance.
The Impact
This program expands children's world view, understanding of geography, other countries and cultures and encourages gratitude, tolerance, understanding, and empathy. Currently, this program is in residence at Le Conte Middle School, where students are exchanging letters and drawings with fellow young people enrolled at Wanyange Primary School in Uganda.
You can watch our Penpal friends dancing together across the globe!
This program encourages youth to become global leaders and trailblazers. Sometimes the art extends beyond postcards. Our youth shared a dance across the world—all dancing to the same song and learning each other’s dance moves. When so many of us felt disconnected during the COVID-19 pandemic, youth from Los Angeles (USA), Beirut (Lebanon), Hyderabad (India), and Jinga (Uganda) danced and expressed their own unique voices to Pharell’s “Happy.” This makes us feel happy all over, and we hope it makes you feel the same.
Feel free to pass this video along to those who you think could use a smile!
Our Partners
We couldn’t do this without the support from our partners.
