Youth Artist Projects
Youth Artist Projects (YAPs) are collaborative classes in contemporary art in which Boston Public School youth (ages 14-19) work with professional artists (Artists-in-Residence) to develop and create a participatory art project. YAPs are paid opportunities for teens to learn creative skills; build their portfolio; meet other young artists in Boston; and investigate social issues through art and place-based education.
Urbano fosters the model of the artist as citizen, actively engaged in conversations with our surrounding community through the lens of contemporary art. We support and challenge youth to become civically engaged artists and tackle social issues in their community that directly affect their lives. Through artistic collaboration, participating youth and professional artists are challenged to create projects within the boundaries of exhibition spaces, virtually, and in their community. These projects span diverse artistic themes and disciplines, but they are all rooted in the fundamental principles of collaboration, risk-taking, and creative and critical expression.
“I want to gain experience in art to not only make a change in my community but the whole world. Actions speak louder than words.”
–Spring 2020 Youth Artist
Search by year, theme, or medium
THEMES
OUR PLANET, OURSELVES
2022-2023
DEMOCRACY
2021-2022
with Artist-in-Residence Yuko Okabe – Fall 2021
with Artist-in-Residence Ponnapa Prakkamakul
RADICAL CARE
2020-2021
with Artist-in-Residence Sheila Novak | Summer 2020
with Artist-in-Residence Gabriel Sosa | Winter 2021
with Artist-in-Residence Sam Richardson | Winter 2021
with Artist-in-Residence Mark Anthony Hernandez Motaghy | Spring 2021
CREATIVE CONDITIONS
2019-2020
RESILIENCE AND SUSTAINABILITY
2018-2019
THE COMMONS | THE OTHER
2016-2017
THE COMMONS: SPACE, PLACE & PUBLIC
2015-2016
THE LAND OF THE FREE: GIFTS AND GIVING AS ARTISTIC INTERVENTION
2014-2015
THE EMANCIPATED CITY: RE-IMAGINING BOSTON
2013-2014
NARRATIVES OF EXCLUSION: RACIAL AND CULTURAL BOUNDARIES IN THE URBAN LANDSCAPE
2012-2013
DISOBEDIENCE: CIVIL, POLITICAL, PUBLIC, PERSONAL, AND PRIVATE
2011-2012
“This is what emancipation means. The blurring of the opposition between they who look and they who act, they who are individuals and they who are members of a collective body.”
with Summer 2022 Artist-in-Residence Sarah Plotkin