Rockaway Art Room (RAR) offers free art classes in the Rockaways while paying teaching artists a fair wage. In creator Jamie Soltis's own words:

Income should never be a barrier to the arts! So far, RAR has hosted classes in watercolor and weaving, acrylic painting for beginners, found-object mandala creation, and intermediate oil painting. We also host our weekly Drawing Meetup, where we get together to draw all casual-like in various locations on the peninsula. All of our classes are open to all ages, and we love seeing new, intergenerational friendships blossom.

With the generous funding from the Awesome Foundation, we'll be able to offer a new class in sculpting that will serve 20-30 eager art lovers!

If you're visiting the Rockaways this summer, please join us! Most of our classes start at 6pm, so if the lifeguards wrap up for the day and you don't feel like getting on the train yet, you can hang out with us for a while. And any kind of support is so deeply appreciated! We fundraise here and are on IG @rockawayartroom. Although the Rockaways is a goldmine of creative people, we do not have classes in the arts as part of our infrastructure, and many of our residents have shared sentiments like, "We really needed this here," or "This neighborhood is often forgotten." So yes--please come to a class or a Drawing Meetup so we can get to know you! xoxo