Anna Beresin and Lindsay Sparagana, Co-Directors of NEUARTS (Neighborhood Engagement at the University of the Arts), discuss “The Silencing of Children in 2016: An Intergenerational Challenge.”  They explain how multi-institutional, multi-age programs can empower young children to express themselves through the arts.

Anna Beresin is a multi-disciplinary scholar with two Ph.D.s, one in Psychology and one in Folklore. A regular visiting Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Anna serves as Associate Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of the Arts. A Lindback Teaching Award winner, she has created several new courses for the University: Observing Humans, Observing Children, Introduction to Folklore, and Analyzing Talk, and teaches in the Game Design minor in Multimedia.

Lindsay Sparagana works with both traditional and digital photographic processes. Her work has been exhibited locally and internationally. Though her passion and formal training are rooted in photography, Lindsay enjoys teaching in alternative classroom settings throughout the Philadelphia area in order to facilitate social change in the city through art making. She works collaboratively with several arts organizations and with students ranging in age from 3-80. In 2010, Sparagana was a panelist for "The Arts for All Ages: A Creative Conversation" sponsored by the Creative Arts and Aging Network. In 2008 and 2009, she was the recipient of the New Courtland Artist Fellowship through the Center for Emerging Visual Artists.