Performing Arts Workshop was established in 1965 to provide a creative outlet for inner-city teenagers. With schools and community centers as her laboratory, Workshop Founder Gloria Unti developed a teaching method based on the conviction that the creative process is a dynamic vehicle for learning, problem-solving, and communication.

Based originally at the Telegraph Hill Community Center, and later at the Buchanan Street YMCA, Gloria led neighborhood youth–most of whom were in gangs or had dropped out of school–in creating a vibrant dramatic workshop. These youth explored the creative process through improvisational dance and theatre, channeling their ideas and experiences into highly-charged political satires and social commentary.

Encouraged by the positive changes witnessed in these early participants and by the overwhelming response from the community, the Workshop expanded its programs and began outreach to a broader population of young people. Today, the Workshop’s commitment to marginalized youth has grown stronger than ever. The Workshop’s Artists-in-Schools and Artists-in-Community programs reach thousands of youth in public schools, transitional housing facilities, and community centers each year. These youth include economically and educationally disadvantaged students, English Learners, Special Education students, and juvenile offenders. The Workshop also collaborates with numerous community partners to ensure that the Workshop’s longstanding value–the belief that all young people, regardless of social status, identity, or ability, are equally entitled to benefit from the creative process–is upheld.