Get Involved

CUP exists to give creative and talented people opportunities to collaborate and make projects that educate and create change. While the core staff supports the organization from day to day, all CUP projects are designed and implemented by teams of artists, designers, educators, activists, and researchers. If you are interested in participating as a designer, organizer, researcher, advocate, coordinator or volunteering in general, let us know by clicking here.

Opportunities for Teachers

CUP currently has opportunities for creative educators. We strive to create classroom opportunities for teaching artists and designers who view teaching as not just a way to support their practice but as a constituent part of it. If you are interested in teaching with CUP or getting CUP to work in YOUR classroom, see below, call or e-mail Rosten Woo.

Opportunities for Artists & Designers

If you want to make creative work about the social, political and built environment, we’d love to meet you. If you're interested in working on an upcoming project or getting paired with a community-based organization, call or e-mail Damon Rich.

Grants

Periodically, CUP creates structured opportunities for researchers, writers, artists, designers and activists to collaborate. We have no active calls at this time but check back soon or send us an e-mail to get on our mailing list.

Propose a project

CUP welcomes project proposals. To suggest a project or apply for fiscal sponsorship, send us a Project Proposal. CUP's board meets 4 times a year to approve new project initiatives. Periodically, CUP makes specific requests for proposals for fiscal sponsorship. To request more information or find out about the project schedule please send us an e-mail.

Project Proposal guidelines

  1. Introduction, intended audience, and envisioned products (300-500 words)
  2. Required resources (cash and noncash, including venues) and possible sources of resources
  3. Staffing
  4. Preliminary timeline
  5. Relevance to CUP's mission: Why should CUP do this? What has been done on this project to date? (300-500 words)

Spring 2006 Teaching Artists & Designers

CUP seeks artists and designers who are interested in using art and design to investigate community issues in New York City. CUP is looking to collaborate with Teaching Artists and Designers to develop and teach multi-session workshops for high school students. CUP educational programs bring artists, designers, teachers, and students together to research their communities and produce civic-scale artworks and public education projects. CUP Teaching Artists & Designers work with CUP staff to develop course ideas, schedules, lesson plans, and documentation of the project. We are open to artists and designers working with any media, but keep in mind that some programs are taught in schools with limited facilities. All Teaching Artists & Designers receive a budget for materials.

During Spring 2006, CUP will be operating projects at four sites:

  1. A ten-session program for three classes at the Academy of Urban Planning in Bushwick, Brooklyn introducing students to the design process, focusing on a site within the existing school.
  2. A five-session afterschool program with high school students in the Bronx.
  3. A 24-session program with students from City-as-School High School in Manhattan investigating how water travels underground and where it goes after you flush the toilet.
  4. A five-session program at Heritage High School in East Harlem making creative visualizations of issues in Earth Science.

CUP works with youth to create collaborative projects that explore the urban environment. Our educational projects build on the everyday experiences of young people in the city to ask questions about democracy, civic participation and social justice. We believe that civic engagement requires a new kind of civic education, one that explains how important decisions actually get made, what is at stake, and how residents can be involved. Our projects use art, design, and technology to draw the connections between everyday life and the decisions that give it form.

CUP projects bring youth face-to-face with the people who make decisions that affect their lives: community advocates, government officials, and businesspeople. Students then work with Teaching Artists & Designers to create educational projects to solidify and spread their knowledge and understanding to the general public.

Teaching Artists are paid $50/hour and receive a paid hour of prep time for every 2-hours spent teaching.

To apply, please submit a cover letter, CV, and work sample via email to info@anothercupdevelopment.org. For your work sample, please send two images in .gif, .jpg, .psd, .tif, .pic, .pict, .png, or .swf format. For text, please submit .pdf, .doc, .txt, or .rtf. For audio or video work samples, please provide a link.

Please the following questions narratively or one-by-one in your cover letter.

  1. Why are you interested in working with high school students?
  2. Which programs would you like to be considered for?
  3. Keeping in mind the general parameters of the courses described above, please outline a rough project prospectus and schedule. A full syllabus is not necessary at this stage, but please provide a full course summary, including ideas for guest speakers and possible fieldtrips.
  4. Please give a brief description of the work sample you have included, and how it relates to the project being proposed.

Applications are due by email Tuesday, January 31 at 5:00 pm.Send applications and questions to Rosten by e-mail.