In 2011, Adarsh Alphons, an immigrant here on a work visa with a mountain of student loans, decided to do everything he wasn't supposed to do: teach art classes to youth full-time for no pay. Starting with a borrowed office space in Harlem, he seized on his entrepreneurial spirit and capitalized on the moment's zeitgeist—the rise of the sharing economy—to create ProjectArt, a nonprofit art organization that has achieved national scale and acclaim by using underutilized spaces in public libraries for public school art education and artists’ studios. ProjectArt is now in 43 libraries in six cities.
Among his other accomplishments, Alphons is a Columbia University Community Scholar. On Tuesday, October 10, SPS Community Relations presented Adarsh Alphons discussing ProjectArt in the School’s third Community Scholars Lecture at Columbia University, Faculty House.
