Our Roots

BuildaBridge was founded in 1997 by university colleagues, Drs. J.Nathan Corbitt and Vivian Nix-Early. BuildaBridge received 501c3 status in 2000. In 1997 BuildaBridge conducted its first learning Institute amongst 15 traumatized congregations in a dysfunctional and earthquake ravaged community in Costa Rica. From that experience, the co-founders saw what could happen when artists with the training and passion for service engage their art as a vehicle for transformation. This led, in 2001, to the implementation of an annual Philadelphia Institute for Arts in Transformation, which has now trained over 1000 participants from Philadelphia and around the world to work with vulnerable populations through art-making. Today BuildaBridge International continues the trail blazed by Drs. Corbitt and Nix-Early while also creating new and innovative paths to making the transformative power of art-making accessible to all.