Art Detectives is a new arts education program that promotes critical and timely dialogue between community youth and police. Through this innovative program, PAMM teaching artists, members of The Links, Inc., Greater Miami (FL) Chapter, Miami-Dade County Police, students and Americorps volunteers from Breakthrough Miami, work together to build relationships using art as a catalyst.

The program unfolds in a series of shared art encounters, each involving 50 middle-school students from Breakthrough Miami, which provides enrichment, mentoring and college access services to nearly 1,300 Miami-Dade County students. The sessions, each of which involve facilitators from The Links and officers from the Miami-Dade County Police Department as well as educators from the PAMM staff, are designed to cultivate observation skills and spark creative thinking and cross-community dialogue. The goal of the program is to create new channels for community interactions – particularly between youth and law enforcement officers – that provide a foundation for mutual understanding and respect.