Introducing Arivva
Pierce Center for Arts & TechnologyArivva seeks to transform lives. We start by providing visual arts programs for high school youth and post-secondary career training for local workers.
Coming Soon!
Clerical/Clinical Medical Assistant Job Training Program
Spring 2022
8 Months Including Externship – Tuition Free
Watch This Space for Updates!
Arivva is a place of opportunity offering youth arts and adult workforce development programs.
Arivva is the first replication of the highly successful Manchester Bidwell Education Model in Washington State.
Our Mission
To transform Pierce County by connecting high school students and adults-in-transition to the opportunities and environment they need to build a better future for themselves, their families, and our community.
Our Vision
We envision a community that sees everyone as an asset, where problems become opportunities to create hope, respect, and belonging, and where every person has a pathway to success.
Our Philosophy
Environment shapes behavior
All people are assets
Creativity fuels enterprise
What We Do
Arivva seeks to transform lives. Our focus is on education and workforce development. We start by providing visual arts programs for high school youth and postsecondary career training for local workers.
We provide scholarships to all our students and remove barriers to access such as evidence of financial stability and prior achievement.
Arrive
Get here, show up, and reach for it. Arivva’s students, staff, partners, and friends alike come to Arivva with strengths, talents, and abilities. Everyone is an asset. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Achieve
Do, accomplish, and realize. Arivva is about making and reaching goals in a culture of respect and dignity. Nobody succeeds alone. When Arivva’s students succeed, we all succeed.
Advance
Make progress, grow, and get ahead. With commitment comes learning and growth. At Arivva, together, we can make goals a reality. Then it’s time to celebrate and move on. Go for it!
Building on a brilliant model
Arivva is modeled after Pittsburgh’s highly successful Manchester Bidwell — an internationally recognized arts and education center founded by the renowned innovator and MacArthur fellow, Bill Strickland. Bill has spent the past thirty years transforming the lives of thousand of people through Manchester Bidwell. He’s shown countless others how they can build on their passions and strengths in order to dream bigger, set the bar higher, and achieve meaningful success.
Our Programs
No Cost, Full Commitment
Our high school visual arts and young adult job training programs are offered at no cost. This includes tuition and supplies. We are grateful to the support of our donors who make this possible. We embed mentorship and personal development into our programs to set our students on a path to success.
Youth Arts and Job Training
Are you interested in the arts? Do you want to develop key social and leadership skills? Arivva partners with public high schools to provide after-school visual arts programs for local students in Parkland. After-school programs, coming soon! Check back here for more information.
Demand-driven Job Training
Arivva provides a second chance for our community’s unemployed, underemployed, and transitioning adult workers. We offer career training only for occupations that have strong demand in the local market. This allows workers to achieve financial self‐sufficiency with a living wage job.
Arivva is a place of hope and opportunity.
Arivva envisions a world‐class facility at the corner of Garfield and C. Street in Parkland filled with cutting edge equipment and materials our students need to master the fields they are studying. We believe that environment shapes behavior, so we are planning an incredible place to nurture the incredible people who walk through our doors.
Keep an eye on this site for updated information.
Stay Up to Date
Follow the Arivva Blog
Moving From Ideas to Action
Back in 2016, when she was Tacoma's mayor, Marilyn Strickland and a group of colleagues listened to Bill Strickland (no relation) talk about the success of his Manchester Bidwell program (see https://www.manchesterbidwell.org/) in Pittsburgh and how the program has...
Creating Opportunity Through Accessibility
Two significant activities are underway at Arivva! We are preparing to launch our Clinical/Clerical Medical Assistant (CCMA) job training program and undergoing significant renovations. Arivva’s new home at the corner of Garfield and C Streets is on its way to...
Dave Parkhurst reflects on Make the Impossible Possible
Arivva builds on the principles of the Manchester Bidwell Corporation and MacArthur Foundation "Genius" grant recipient Bill Strickland, its founder and CEO. Here, Dave Parkhurst reflects on Make the Impossible Possible as Strickland reveals how each of us can change...
HopeCAT offers students skills for jobs in demand
“These people put me on the path to success, and that is immeasurable.” This is what David Kennedy recently shared about the staff at Hope Center for Arts & Technology in Sharon, PA while crediting his success in the medical assistant program to them. He...
Events & Registration
November Adult Drop in Class (One day)
Wednesday, November 3rd 6-8:30pm
ONLINE Fall High School Photography Class
Tues/Thurs, November 30th 2021- December 9th, 4:00-6:00 PM
Fall Family Class
November 15th, 17th, & 18th 5-7pm
December 2021 In-Person or Online (Hybrid) Ceramics Class for High School Students Free
Monday, November 29th, 2021, 3:30 PM – Thursday, December 16th, 2021, 5:30 PM
There are no-contact options for all classes utilizing zoom.
Connect With Us
For More Information,
Please contact Executive Director, Dr. Dan Bissonnette, at dan@arivva.org.
Small Actions x Lots of People = Big Change
Arivva is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization incorporated in 2016. We are actively seeking a combination of donations from regional foundations, businesses, and individuals to secure ample funding and establish our long term endowment.
Join us in creating opportunities, building futures and launching careers.
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Pierce Center for Arts & Technology, dba Arivva
402 Garfield Street South, Tacoma, WA 98444
Corporate address: PO Box 44046, Tacoma, WA 98448-0046
Send inquiries to info@arivva.org
Arivva’s organizational groundwork embraces anti-racism. Our mission is empowerment through mentorship and learning. There are things all of us can do to fight for racial justice. We invite you to join us in our commitment to listen and lead with courage, compassion, and humility so that life and lives can flourish in our communities. Black lives matter.
Arivva complies with applicable federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex. See https://civilrights.findlaw.