Alfred University News

Alfred University Art Force 5 project featured in two New York City television broadcasts

The Women’s Empowerment Draft, a project by Alfred University’s Art Force 5, has featured recently on two New York City television broadcasts.


ALFRED, NY – The Women’s Empowerment Draft, a project by Alfred University’s Art Force 5, has featured recently on two New York City television broadcasts.

Art Force 5 was founded at Alfred University in 2006 and uses community-based art to inspire discussion on topics of equality and social justice. In honor of Women’s History Month (celebrated in March), Art Force 5 is holding its Women’s Empowerment Draft initiative. The program, modeled on professional sports teams’ annual drafts, celebrates the lives of historically vital women.

Last week, students in Art Force 5 visited five public schools in New York City named for women, helping local students learn more about the women for whom their schools were named. Students visited the Sarah Smith Garnet public school in Brooklyn; Celia Cruz High School of Music, Bronx; Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Manhattan; Emma Lazarus Elementary, Brooklyn; and Rosa Parks Elementary, Queens. The group also led the students in painting ceramic tiles that, once assembled, will represent the five iconic figures.

In its March 8 broadcast, Bronx-based News 12 covered Art Force Five’s visit to Celia Cruz High School for Music, showing students at work on their tiles, and an interview with Dan Napolitano ’93, MSEd ’98, founder of Art Force Five and assistant dean of Alfred University’s School of Art and Design.

WNBC featured Art Force 5 and its Women’s Empowerment Draft during its March 9 broadcast. Napolitano was also interviewed for that story.

The Art Force Five initiative is part of a larger activity in New York State celebrating the lives of historically important woman during Women’s History Month. Altogether, more than 20 SUNY and CUNY colleges and universities are reaching out to public schools around the state named for historic women.