Yonkers Art Leader Haifa Bint-Kadi and Art & Soul Studio Join Purchase College Center for Community & Culture (PC4 Yonkers)

Purchase College, SUNY, is pleased to announce that Haifa Bint-Kadi and her organization, Art & Soul Studio, have been selected to coordinate programs for the Purchase College Center for Community & Culture-Yonkers (PC4Y) space at 16 Warburton Avenue, in Yonkers, NY.

Purchase College and Yonkers city officials opened the Purchase College Center for Community and Culture in downtown Yonkers in Fall 2015. Since its opening, the 4,000-square-foot space has offered educational programs for adults and youths, and has hosted many arts based activities and exhibitions for the community.

Bint-Kadi, a proud resident of the City of Yonkers, is a teacher, artist, and administrator who has devoted her life to a community-based social practice of the arts. Currently, she is the curator of the Yonkers Art Gallery in the City of Yonkers Waterfront Library, and the Director of Community Engagement Through the Arts for Groundwork Hudson Valley. Bint-Kadi is the 2015 recipient of Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano’s Woman of Distinction Award. She has served as a board member for several organizations, including the City of Yonkers’s Muslim American Advisory Board, the New York State Roundtable for the Arts, and the Teaching Artist Association. More information at: http://www.haifabint-kadi.com/about-haifa.html or http://www.groundworkhv.org/haifa-bint-kadi/.

Christopher Kaczmarek, General Manager of PC4Y and Purchase College Director of Instructional Support for the School of the Arts, said, “We are excited to work with Haifa Bint-Kadi and her organization, as they bring a wide range of experience in community engagement and artistic expression to the Center. With this valuable new addition to the team, we really look forward to expanding our work of introducing community groups and Yonkers residents to the many resources that the center offers.”

About Purchase College–SUNY

Purchase College, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) network of 64 universities and colleges, was founded in 1967 by Governor Nelson Rockefeller. His aspiration for Purchase was to create a dynamic campus that combined conservatory training in the visual and performing arts with programs in the liberal arts and sciences, in order to inspire an appreciation for both intellectual and artistic talents in all students. Today, Purchase College–SUNY is a community of students, faculty, and friends where open-minded engagement with the creative process leads to a lifetime of intellectual growth and professional opportunity. For more information about the College, visit www.purchase.edu