Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts (www.usdan.com), is the New York-area’s not-for-profit summer day arts center now entering its 43rd season, declared a “Best Of” camp by TimeOutNY/Kids, NY Metro Parents, and Long Island Press.  Our 2012 Season begins on June 25th at the Center’s 200-acre woodland campus in Huntington, Long Island. Usdan is open to all young people from age 6 to 18, and no audition is needed for most programs – rather, admission is based on an expression of interest in the arts. Each summer, 1,600 students travel to the Center each day on air-conditioned buses that depart from neighborhoods throughout the New York metropolitan area. Although Usdan’s mission is for every child to establish a skill-based relationship with the arts, the unique stimulation of the Center has caused many to go on to professional careers.  Alumni include singers Mariah Carey, Natalie Portman, and jazz singer Jane Monheit, as well as members of major music, theater, and dance ensembles throughout the world.

Usdan was formed to provide children with the arts as a companion for life through great teaching, and the camaraderie of fellow students whose bond is their love of the arts. Usdan offers more than 40 programs in orchestra, band, jazz ensemble, chorus, guitar, and piano in the Music Department; ballet, modern, jazz, and tap dance in the Dance Department; musical theater or drama in the Theater Department; painting & drawing, fashion design, cartooning, animation, ceramics, sculpture, jewelry, photography, video, and media arts in the Art Department; creative writing, chess, nature and ecology, and organic gardening. A special feature of each student’s program is the Center's series of Festival Concerts, daily educational performances by distinguished artists. Some of those who have recently appeared at Usdan include James Galway, Empire Brass, jazz artists Jimmy Heath and Jane Monheit, the Tokyo String Quartet, the Limon Dance Company, and stars of current Broadway shows.

Usdan’s Long Island campus includes 70 award-winning studios and theaters, each providing an inspiring collaboration with the Center’s magnificent woodland. Usdan is a beneficiary agency of UJA-Federation of New York, and the Center is chartered by the Regents of the State of New York.