August 14, 2024
By Gaby Messino
A first for high school students in Santa Cruz County, the Institute for Arts & Sciences just wrapped up its inaugural youth program, Art For All. Funded by the Monterey Peninsula Foundation,The program brings together high school juniors and seniors from around the Santa Cruz area to give them a hands-on, behind-the scenes look at cultural spaces and exhibition curation. “This is an art program that exceeds the expectations of an art program,” says Emma, Watsonville High School, one of the participating students.
Art For All ran for four weeks in July and taught students about installations, curation, event planning, and museum education. They visited local exhibitions including murals in San Francisco’s Mission District, the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford, and Seeing through Stone at IAS’s partner institutions Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos and San José Museum of Art. Students also had the chance to meet with local arts professionals to learn more about careers in the field.
“The participants constantly impressed us with their thoughtfulness and engagement with our exhibitions and programs,” says Alex Moore, the curator of academic programs at IAS. “This program infused the IAS with so much joy and energy.”
In this program students were also asked to interact with the overlap between art and justice. One of IAS’s goals is to creatively educate students and the public about urgent issues impacting our society with innovative approaches to art and equity. Their current exhibit, Seeing Through Stone, focuses on incarceration in the U.S.
“My biggest takeaway is that in order for me to be educated and informed on subjects that aren’t mainstream to talk about in certain ways, I need to fight for my own rights as a student and how I am educated,” says Grayson, Cypress High School. Fellow participant, Ricardo, Watsonville High School, drew attention to his contribution to the IAS exhibitions : “Planting at Solitary Garden and creating an audio tour [for Seeing through Stone] felt very special because it felt like I was giving back to the community.”
After the success of this inaugural program, the IAS is planning on bringing back Art for All next summer. “I am grateful to the Monterey Peninsula Foundation for funding this inaugural program and enabling us to expand the IAS’s educational mission to high school students across Santa Cruz County,” says Rachel Nelson, the director of IAS. “This support enabled us to give these students a once-in-a-lifetime experience with art and museums.”
Beyond the importance of receiving a hands-on arts education, students were also grateful to have created a community at IAS. “I’m most proud of the connections I’ve made and the people I can now call my friends,” says Natti, Watsonville High School. Another student, Jaden, Santa Cruz High School, expressed a similar sentiment: “This is one of the best internships I’ve ever joined; it feels like an actual community.”
