Our Mission
We aim to create avenues for educational access and to improve the quality of life for youth caregivers through the study and practice of the arts.
Photograph by Ally Caple.
With holistic arts education, we hope to honor youth caregivers and their autonomy, authorship, and monumental labor.
Who are youth caregivers?
Youth caregivers are young people who care for a sick, elderly, or disabled family member. Of the ~53 Million unpaid caregivers in the United States, approximately 10% are under 18 years old. With no federal or state protections, youth caregivers are among the most under-served groups in the country.
Our Approach
Arts Education & Well-Being
Our arts curriculum is rooted in trauma-informed pedagogy, integrating holistic exercises and projects that offer opportunities for self-reflection, meditation, and catharsis.
Community-Building
One of the key challenges faced by youth caregivers is isolation. Our program is geared towards developing a supportive community for our fellows that they can rely on in the classroom and beyond.
Material Support & Educational Access
To ensure our students can participate in our programs, we offer total material support, including stipends, art supplies, meals, and transportation. To ensure the program does not interfere with fellows’ caregiving responsibilities, our curriculum is hybrid, offering both in-person and online instruction.
The MCN Story
On Love & Loss
In the last months of her father’s life, founder and artist Smita Sen served as one of her father’s palliative caregivers. Working alongside her mother and brother to care for her father, Sen and her family began caregiving full-time. Their lives became defined by hospitals, doctors’ visits, and at-home care. In an essay reflecting on palliative care, love, and loss, Sen wrote, “What is healthcare? What does it mean to ‘care’ for the ‘health’ of someone else?”
Growing & Evolving
Researching this question for years, Sen developed a series of artworks and public initiatives. The Manipura works began as an art book and sculpture series published in 2019. The book gradually grew into The Manipura Sanctum — a public installation developed in 2021 as a part of the Recess Session program in Brooklyn, NY. The Sanctum became a space for visitors to meditate, to draw, and to share stories with each other about giving and receiving care. Supported by Recess, the Manipura Sanctum became a public artwork in the Brooklyn Public Library in 2022, one of the largest and most visited public libraries in the United States.
A Path Forward
With seed funds from Recess, The Manipura Sanctum has been expanded into the Manipura Care Network — an arts organization serving caregiving youth. Developed by a team of artists, educators, and nonprofit professionals, the Manipura Care Network is an initiative rooted in an understanding of the transformative potential of arts education. In our work, we aim to leverage arts education as a vehicle for self-reflection and community-building to empower caregiving youth and to promote well-being. In so doing, we hope to honor youth caregivers and their autonomy, authorship, and monumental labor.
From our Needs Assessment
World Health Organization researchers looked at studies evaluating the impact of arts classes for caregivers, and found that these classes were able to “reduce the caregiver's burden and promote self-acceptance, self-awareness, empathy and catharsis” (Fancourt & Finn, 28).
Meet the Team
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Smita Sen
FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
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Shawna Moulton
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
OF EDUCATION & OUTREACH -
Senching Hsia
COMMUNICATIONS & DESIGN INTERN
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Kalya Yannatos
ADIVSORY BOARD
Director of Development at the Putney School -
Meenakshi Chakraverti, Ph.D.
ADVISORY BOARD
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devynn emory, R.N.
ADVISORY BOARD
NYU Langone Health -
Soa Andrian
ADVISORY BOARD
MBA Candidate, Stanford University -
Jaycee Holmes
ADVISORY BOARD
Director of Curriculum & Instruction, CodeHouse
Professor, Spelman College
