After school on a Friday afternoon, five children sat in a classroom at Harlem’s Public School 200, making art.

Kwame, 7, stuck his tongue out of the side of his mouth in concentration as he sketched a giant man with two smaller people in his chest. “No peeking!” he said to the nearby Free Arts NYC volunteer. The volunteer obediently turned her back.

Free Arts NYC is just one of many organizations that serve tens of thousands of grade-school children in New York City annually by providing after-school arts education and mentoring. Operators say such programs are essential for children who don’t always have a supportive family environment at home or other arts opportunities.

But the programs may soon face cutbacks as public and private funding shrinks amid the recession.

Building ‘Successful Adults’

“The benefit ultimately is the protective factor to kids, their resilience, confidence, decision making, self esteem, so they can go on to be successful adults,” said Liz Hopfan, the director of Free Arts NYC. “One hundred percent of our kids come from low-income households.”

Many of the kids in the program have parents who work long hours and cannot always give them the attention they need. Some students are immigrants who don’t speak English well. Others come from troubled households, and some are even homeless.

The state reduced funding for after-school programs by $7 million in the 2009-10 budget, with another $3 million to be cut next year. Arts grant funding also was reduced by $3 million.

Mayor Bloomberg’s preliminary 2009-2010 fiscal year budget includes an 8.2 percent cut to social services – a category that includes arts education and after-school programs.

Hope for Help

A great deal of pain for after-school program providers may also come from the private sector. Companies like Ford and Wells Fargo were among the biggest donors to art education, according to the philanthropic authority The Foundation Center.

Some good news might come in the form of President Obama’s stimulus bill. Some $1.8 billion is earmarked for education aid and $7 million will go towards the education of homeless children.

“Kids need this stuff more than ever now because economic situation – parents will be losing jobs, have tensions at home,” said Hopfan.

Kids at Risk

Rachel Brandoff, a volunteer trainer, said adult supervision and attention are key in keeping at-risk children out of trouble.

“These kids were and are in gangs, doing drugs, playing ball,” said Brandoff.  “These kids ride the line between child and adult.  They are doing things I don’t even know about.”

Asked where he would be if it weren’t for the program, Kwame said, “Misbehaving. Stomping my feet, yelling. Hurting people.”