Sitar Next Door Launches Its First Season of Programming!
Our 2026 Bloomberg Arts Interns hard at work in The Flex at Sitar Next Door.
This summer, Sitar Next Door is welcoming its very first campers and interns!
Across our two adjacent sites — Sitar Arts Center and Sitar Next Door — Sitar is reaching 242 DC youth ages 5 to 24 through a continuum of full-day, six-week summer programming: Camp Sitar (ages 5–13), Sitar's Emerging Arts Leaders Internship (S.E.A.L.) (ages 14–24), and the Bloomberg Arts Internship (BAI) (rising high school seniors).
With the extra space Sitar Next Door provides, we are able to bring our full community together — every age, learning side by side — like never before. As our younger campers walk through the hallways, they are right alongside our teen and young adult S.E.A.L. and BAI interns — learning from each other, sharing joyful moments and exchanges, and supporting one another. Camp students get to see, right in front of them, real pathways to what they might want to do one day.
Learn about how Sitar Next Door is advancing each of our summer programs:
Camp Sitar
Every day, 139 campers are trying something new — building skills, finding their confidence, and discovering what they are capable of. From 3D art and dance to media arts and beyond, each project and performance helps shape the artists, leaders, and changemakers they will become. Camp students come to Sitar Next Door daily for classes in the new musical ensemble room and head to The Flex for indoor recess.
Sitar's Emerging Arts Leaders (S.E.A.L.)
Our 44 S.E.A.L. interns are working as classroom assistants, musical theater actors and production assistants, and mural artists — gaining hands-on experience in leadership, communication, mentorship, and teamwork. At Sitar Next Door, S.E.A.L. mural artists work in the new Corcoran Art Studio every morning, creating murals for clients across the city. Musical production interns are also hard at work in the Corcoran Art Studio in the afternoons, building props, sets, and costumes for The Lightning Thief: Theatre for Young Audiences Edition, our summer musical production.
Bloomberg Arts Internship (BAI)
Sitar Arts Center is proud to be the DC home of the Bloomberg Arts Internship program. This summer, 59 rising high school seniors are working 40 hours a week for 7 weeks through the program. Alongside paid internships at local arts and culture organizations, they spend time daily at Sitar Next Door for workforce development and college readiness training — using The Flex, Conference Room, Media Arts Lab, Arts Learning Labs, and The Lounge.
This new cohort of talented young people is bringing incredible leadership and community to the Center. This summer also marks a milestone: the first time BAI has been onsite since the program launched in 2022, after years of renting space across the city while Sitar Next Door was under construction. The interns continue to inspire us everyday, as one BAI intern shared:
"I am a force of courage and creativity. I am a dreamer of a world where everyone's differences bring them together, not apart. I am a call to action for creative freedom with no limits.
Sitar Next Door was built for exactly this, a space where students of all ages can learn, lead, and grow together. This first summer is just the beginning.