Community Partnerships and Initiatives

School Programs

The ARC currently operates programs at five sites in partnerships with over a dozen local schools. Our main school partner is Wonder School, a billingual Reggio Emilia inspired nursery school in Central Tel Aviv, where we also have hosted our Creativity Camps for 10 seasons. Over the years, I like to tease that they have stolen all our teachers or that I should get an HR stipend for the staff I've brought them. But I'm thrilled we've done this matchmaking to support our tribe and make more small world magic. We love Wonder School staff and families. They are our second home~

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Additional school communities we serve include:

Adama, Ahavat Tzion, Arnon, Balfour, Bavli, Bikorim, Gavrieli, Nachala, Maoz Aviv, Meron, Pomelit, Ushishkin, Yehuda Macabi among others in Central and North TLV

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Community Outreach

The ARC community of teachers, artists and volunteers also have helped support the Art Room at HaYarden School in South TLV, which serves hundreds of children from African refugee families and foreign workers. Our program students work on projects every year to create handmade activity books and collect and wrap holiday donations for the families from this community, while the children also spend time learning about the cultures and peoples of Eritrea, Sudan, Philippines, Thailand and India to feel more connected when we practice letter writing to the children.  

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The ARC has also worked to help bring more support to Kuchinate, a women's co-op organization, employing African refugees and asylum seekers through the creation of their own craft products. We have hosted sales, welcomed the groups to our sites, and also brought our program children across town to visit their center where the women work in order to learn and connect more with this community.

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Special Community Events

The ARC partners with the British Embassy to serve families living in Israel for short-term work assignments. We have hosted groups of children at The ARC Garden House for special programs and arranged for creative afternoons at the Ambassador's residence.

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In our annual Creative Discovery Field Trip Programs, the groups of children often focus on creating urban interventions and public art works as they are out and about moving and making. Usually their works are more transitory, but sometimes they create pieces that remain at the sites. There is a very cool mural our program kids made of discarded plastic toy pieces outside the Golden Sun Kombucha bar at Allenby 87(!)

 

The children who are in our afternoon programs at the Garden House in the Old North regularly use a tall wall of bushes as an exhibition site. We have built the Great Wall of China, Mindful Meditation Chalk Walks, Winter backdrops, Passover fairy tales in giant cardboard cuts outs, and holiday tokens as hanging mobile installations. We refer to this series as the Corner Park Projects. 

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The ARC also proudly hosts festivities for holidays that are not so widely celebrated in Israel. We have offered special Christmas events, Fourth of July programming, and the crown jewel Halloween event for the last five years. Eliza co-founded and still leads the Halloween procession, family arts activities and Pumpkin Pop-up. In 2022 there were over 500 families that participated and came to trick-or-treat to hundreds of houses registered on our interactive map(!)​​​

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Deliverable ARC-its Art Paks

In the first Covid lockdown the ARC began offering “ARC-its”, Art Paks that could be picked up or delivered locally in Tel Aviv. These Art Project Paks come with all art supplies and Creative Curriculum Guides, some with an accompanying video link to work along with. There are five different Art Paks available, each including ALL the cool materials and guides for a diverse array of engaging hands-on activities providing a week of creative explorations. Currently we are working to develop the packages that can be delivered online with instructions for materials and making. Folks interested in testing our Beta paks, please do be in touch~

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Teacher Trainings

Founding Director Eliza Duenow has been leading professional development for Early Childhood and Elementary educators for over two decades. Each year, she trains dozens of teachers, caregivers, and teaching artists in child-centered, trauma-informed, and play-based methodologies, integrating foundational insights into child development, brain science, regulation techniques, and creative teaching. She specializes in guiding educators with little arts experience and artists new to working with children, offering deep coaching in creativity, mindfulness, and relational teaching.​ In Chicago, she launched and led three years of Talkshops at Hyde Park Art Center —hands-on conversations for teachers and parents exploring youth development, creative curriculum design, and executive functioning and regulation practices through the arts. She continues to offer a range of workshops, including Scavenging for Synchronicity, Wander Wonder, Practicing Presence, and Creative Consciousing foundational trainings. Sessions range from single-day intensives to multi-session series, available locally in Chicago and seasonally in Tel Aviv. Please inquire for details via the contact form

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Creative Consciousing for Adults - Circles/Coaching

Eliza also offers immersive programs for adults—intimate circles that blend curated literature discussions, contemplative practices, therapeutic writing, and hands-on creative exploration. These gatherings, somewhere between a book club, writing salon, meditation sangha and expressive arts session, foster deep conversation and creative engagement. Eliza leads groups into reflective making spaces, frequently hosting field visits to local nature sites and artists’ studios, and welcoming co-creative dialogues shaped by participants’ interests. Groups are small, often evolving into ongoing communities, and are offered seasonally in Chicago and Tel Aviv.​ In addition, Eliza provides private coaching and customized resource packages for individuals and parents seeking to deepen their engagement with creative practices, writing, and interpersonal relating skills. Rooted in her Creative Consciousing pedagogy, forwarded the last decade via The ARC programs, Eliza's work supports both personal expression and social-emotional development for children and adults alike. For schedules and coaching inquiries, please reach out.

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Creative Weekends

A newer initiative open for parents and children together! This series was inspired by special requests over the last years from dozens of parents who wished that they could join our Creative Discovery field trip programs! These weekend excursions invite parents and children to participate in curated afternoons, exploring fun cultural sites, funky artsy corners, and lovely nature spots in and around their cities. We play in Chicagoland during the school year and in Tel Aviv over the summers. We provide maps, resource lists, orientation sessions, guided explorations, and closing sharing circles. We share creative materials for hands-on projects along the way and guide families through some ARC ways of creative play, both scavenging to collect special finds and mark making to create ephemeral urban intervention installations. Please inquire for next season's schedule!

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