Sitar Arts Center

Sitar Arts Center brings a diverse community together to give underserved children and youth the opportunity to explore the visual and performing arts in an afterschool safe haven. The Center partners with volunteer artists and arts organizations to provide comprehensive arts education, nurturing relationships, and high expectations that enable young people to better know and express themselves as they discover and develop their artistic gifts and life skills. 

Sitar Arts Center began in 2000 as a music program housed in the basement of a subsidized apartment building serving 50 students from Adams Morgan. Today, Sitar provides a rich multidisciplinary arts curriculum in a state-of-the-art facility to help more than 850 students annually develop social and life skills that lead to success in school and beyond. Named a winner of the 2009 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Awards (formerly The Coming Up Taller Award), the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities has distinguished Sitar as one of the top afterschool arts and humanities organizations serving youth in the country. For 16 years, Sitar has ensured that no child is turned away by maintaining the benchmark that 80% of school-aged students come from low-income households. 

Sitar Arts Center provides children and youth from low-income households with widespread opportunity to develop artistic, social, and life skills that lead to success through its three core programs: Arts Afterschool, Camp Sitar and Early Childhood Arts. Programs are led by 100 talented volunteer teaching artists and artistic partners that include The Washington Ballet, Berklee College of Music, Cathedral Choral Society, CityDance Ensemble, National Symphony Orchestra, Washington Performing Arts Society, Sahara Dance Company, and the DC Jazz Festival.