Renzi Education and Art Center

Description

The Renzi Education and Art Center offers a free After School Program, with two 25-minute academic classes and one 50-minute art class to children in grades K-12, Monday through Thursday, throughout the school year. We also offer a free three-week summer multidisciplinary arts camp every June. Our programs are open to all children in the Shreveport-Bossier area; however, we focus on recruiting at-risk youth. Eighty percent of our students are from low-income backgrounds. Up to 60 students attend the After School Program each day; over 100 come during the school year. Sixty-six percent of our students are African American, 25% Caucasian, and the rest of mixed ethnic/racial backgrounds.

The Renzi Education and Art Center was founded by the Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows Congregation in Shreveport in 1997 after receiving a large house in a low-income area of Shreveport's Highland neighborhood. They decided to use the house to hold free afterschool art and academic classes after seeing the neighborhood children often had nowhere to go to after school. They often were roaming crime-ridden streets during peak hours of juvenile criminal activity. The Renzi Center gives a safe, nurturing place for children to go to after school, one-on-one tutoring from professional teachers in our academic classes, and guidance from local, professional artists, who show students their unique approaches, processes and techniques when creating their art. The Renzi Center is a 501c3 non-profit organization.