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FEBRUARY 2005

Tiki Barber at the MOMA

Giants’ Tiki Barber Supports Arts Education

By Nazneen Malik

Recently, the Museum of Modern Art, in conjunction with JPMorgan Chase and football running back Tiki Barber of the New York Giants, launched a new program, Exploring the Modern, aimed at incorporating the Arts into New York City elementary and middle school education.

Sponsored by JPMorgan Chase, the program is a year long initiative and is comprised of a series of educational tours that allow students to gain familiarity and appreciation of contemporary works of art.

A spokesperson for the Exploring the Modern program, Tiki Barber is acutely aware of the need to provide students with different avenues such as music, art, and athletics, to serve as alternative modes of expression. A lot of the time, he says, students’ affinity for these particular areas gets lost because they lack the exposure. 

Indeed, Barber found his own method of expression in athletics at the tender age of eight and it continues to remain an integral part of him. “Sports always gave me structure in my life,” he says. Nevertheless, he maintained a balance between sports and his academic education, excelling in both. In fact, he graduated as valedictorian, boasting a 4.0 grade point average from Cave Spring High School. Barber credits his mother for his academic success and fondly recalls, “my mom would not let us go to practice unless we did our homework, so I got very good at learning things quickly and getting it done so that I could go do the things I wanted to do.” Even while he was in college, Barber’s mother still pushed her sons. She went back to college to obtain her Master’s degree when Barber enrolled at the University of Virginia. “Literally every week, she would call and tell us I’m still making straight A’s, what are you guys doing?” he laughs, “we competed against mom all the way through college.”

It was in college that Barber developed an interest in education issues. He participated in a program that paired up elementary school students with college students, and had them meet every once in a while to talk. “When I got to New York City,” says Barber “I found so many avenues for giving back. I know that as an athlete, I have a big power of influence.  Sending the right message to kids is important to me.” And he does.

Barber is involved with numerous charities and community initiatives such as the Fresh Air Fund and the Children’s Miracle Network, of which he is a board member. He is also very enthusiastic about the Exploring the Modern program at MoMa. “This is such a great thing for JPMorgan Chase and MoMa to do,” he says, “because it opens up another avenue and gives students exposure to it. I was exposed to a lot when I was younger,” he continues, “and it shaped me into the person I am today.” #

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