Barbara Allen , Fresh Artists

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As an avid believer in the transformative power of artmaking, Allen was appalled to learn that Philadelphia public school art teachers receive 83 cents per student per year to buy supplies. So, in 2007, Allen founded Fresh Artists, supporting school art programs while giving students opportunities to learn how to be young philanthropists. Drawing on more than 40 years of experience in arts administration, Allen approached corporations with an unusual and valuable trade - art for art supplies. In exchange for tax-deductible donations to Fresh Artists, the companies accept large-scale, digital reproductions of local children's artwork to display in their vast corporate spaces. Fresh Artists uses the money to buy and deliver art supplies to Philadelphia's public schools. One young "artist-philanthropist" raised $5,000 in just six months for art supplies that will go to his peers throughout the school district. During its first year, Fresh Artists delivered $40,000 in supplies to 150 art teachers in Philadelphia's most underfunded schools, and it has installed 200 pieces of children's artwork in corporate offices. Allen, now 61, says the ultimate vision for Fresh Artists is to create an apprenticeship program for at-risk youth by establishing a studio workshop where teens will print, fabricate and install donor gift artwork in corporate interiors, thus realizing the dream of creating a totally student-centric philanthropy.