About Art Start
Since 1991 Art Start has used the creative process to nurture the voices, hearts, and minds of youth from communities that have been historically marginalized, offering a space for them to imagine, believe, and represent their creative vision for their lives and communities.
Through consistent workshops with long-term community partners, including youth organizations, schools, alternative sentencing programs, and transitional housing residences, art becomes the starting point of a larger life process, and the start of larger conversations about the future of our communities.
Founded and headquartered in New York City and operating Milwaukee since 2017, Art Start has become an award-winning, nationally recognized model for using the creative arts to transform lives. Through its three main programs, Creative Collectives, Creative Connections, and Public Exchanges, Art Start engages thousands of youth and community members each year. Art Start meets youth where they are, supports them in identifying and building upon innate talents, wisdom, and lived experiences, and maintains platforms for voices to be heard and people to be seen through the process of their own creative self-determination.
About creative collectives
Through long-term partnerships with numerous city and nonprofit social service agencies, Art Start’s Creative Collectives take place inside of transitional housing residences (shelters) for families experiencing homelessness, at schools, and at residential detention facilities and alternative sentencing programs for court-involved youth.
Programs are conducted year round, up to five days a week with youth and families, bringing a unique formula of arts programming that’s studentcentered, fluid and adaptive, yet focused and consistent.
Creative Collectives allow youth the opportunity to grow and develop selfawareness through self-expression, which has been proven to reduce stress and accelerate psychological and physical healing. Workshops are led by Art Start staff who focus on building trusting relationships with youth. Art Start believes that each individual has an autonomous and creative spirit which is inherently healing and liberating. We strive to create a safe and creative space where youth voices are centered and have the opportunity for public exchange of their ideas and voices.
Art Start has been holding Creative Collectives workshops in partnership with CommonPoint Queens at their Youth Opportunity Hub in Jamaica, NY since 2023.
prologue
As Art Start’s lead artist educator for our twice-weekly arts workshops at Commonpoint Queens Youth Opportunity Hub, I’ve been fortunate to witness youth and young adults, ages of 11 to 24, carving out their safe, creative space to express their truest selves while also exploring new artists, learning techniques, and working with new mediums.
The past 10 months have been an incredibly rewarding experience for me. It has been a joy to watch the youth grow and become more confident in their artistic abilities. With their newly acquired set of skills and techniques, I’ve witnessed them take risks, challenge themselves, become more intentional with their work, and develop greater patience in their creative process. Many projects this year emphasized mindfulness and intentionality, such as creating abstract work, wire sculptures, and mandalas. They’ve also learned new skills such as creating coil pots using air-dry clay, how to embroider using thread and a needle, and how to make their own prints using styrofoam and brayers. The youth reflected on their identities through various projects and learned about different cultures through art-making. They created Outside/Inside Masks where they painted the outside of the mask with how the world sees them, and they decorated the inside of the masks with how they see themselves.
Many projects focused on self-portraits and learned about writing “I Am...” positive affirmations. At the beginning of the year, they created vision boards and decorated their journals using magazine clippings. They have also participated in a photo project in which they were able to gain insight into their worlds through a photographic lens.
The exhibition theme, “Metamorphosis”, describes this past year beautifully. I’ve witnessed the youth blossom into more creative and confident individuals. They are all going through transitional periods in their life — each individual has their own special journey and story to tell through their artwork. They are learning more about who they are and who they want to be. They were challenged to be more patient and intentional with their work, and I’ve witnessed them become more comfortable being their truest selves in the art space. They all have their own story to tell, and I hope this show will be a testament to their transitory and evolving selves. As you view their work and their words, you will see that their vision and how they want the world to see them are important.
Shelly Wong Art Start Artist Educator
metamorphosis
metamorphosis contributing artiSts
Danna Paola Karen
Josiah
Angelica
Luisa
magazine collages
Felt figures embroidery
wire sculptures
abStract canvases
styrofoam
printmaking
lunar new year fai chun & cHinese lanterns
record mandalas
metamorphosis an art exhibition on transformation
Metamorphosis is an exhibition featuring student artwork from the past year of Art Start’s youth visual arts programs at CommonPoint Queens Youth Opportunity Hub in Jamaica, NY.
Sponsored by CommonPoint Queens Youth Opportunity Hub New York State Foundation for the Arts
www.art-start.org www.seemebecause.org @artstartorg
For more about Art Start’s programs, scan here:
