The Story
Art Stars is creating arts-based programming that nurtures the creativity and cultural histories of young people from refugee, asylee, and low-income immigrant communities in Oakland, California. We also facilitate leadership and work opportunities for newcomer high school students from Oakland International High School who will collaborate with us as ‘Young Teacher Artists’ this Summer for one week of Soccer Camp!
Art Stars was developed with feedback from Refugee Transitions, the only local organization whose mission is to provide education, family engagement, and community leadership services to help newcomers improve their English, career, life, and academic skills so they can be self-sufficient and successful in their new communities. Lead organizer Jackie Katz has been creatively collaborating with Refugee Transitions (RT) since August 2016, and co-organizer River Black has volunteered with RT since January 2017. Nicole Germanov, RT’s Program and Volunteer Manager, will serve as consultant as Art Stars develops original programming to address the artistic needs of local newcomer youth.
Art Stars will partner with Oakland International High School to recruit Young Teaching Artists (YTAs). OIHS Students are English language learners, most of whom immigrated to the U.S. in the last four years. We will provide mentorship to the YTAs, who will in turn mentor the younger participants. A structured orientation for the YTAs will include sessions on lesson plan creation, qualities of good mentorship, portfolio building, resume writing, and more.
The Art Stars program will run from 9am-12pm weekdays during the last 2 weeks of July. Young Teaching Artists will be paid $15/hour for four hours (8:30am-12:30pm) and will work alongside us to implement the arts curriculum.
Sample activities for participants include: cyanotypes, monoprinting, clay pinch pots and small figures, felt masks, found object sculpture, handmade paper journals, natural dyes, and disposable camera photography.
The program will culminate in a celebration and exhibition of participant work. The form of the exhibition will be partly determined by the participants and Young Teaching Artists. It could look like: A) Exhibition at a local gallery or business, B) Pop-up exhibition at a local park, C) Sharing work online via a website, or D) Zine to distribute to families and the public.
Our program supports local artists in three ways: 1) teaching young people ages 3-10 visual arts skills; 2) training and paying teen artists to lead as Young Teaching Artists; 3) developing our own skills as teaching and community-based artists.
The intended impact of this project is also threefold: to nurture the creativity of young people and provide them a meaningful experience of mentorship and arts; to empower high schoolers as leaders in their communities while developing their professional, artistic, and teaching skills; and to deepen our collective experience facilitating workshops and working and learning alongside diverse youth. The primary audience for this project are the newcomer youth of East Oakland and their families. The secondary audience are local artists and educators who are interested in community arts.
Our motivations stem from our shared interest in radical pedagogy and our belief in the power of art to tell stories and create community. Art enables self expression and builds self esteem, and these youth deserve more access to this vital tool. As a collective, we are passionate about hands-on, arts-based learning; youth education and empowerment; mentorship for teens; and developing our skills as teaching artists. We want to welcome young newcomers into our community and support them in developing language, relationships, and creativity to assist their transition.
Art Stars expands on work we are already doing. We see this summer program as one of many initiatives to create a larger project to bring art to newcomer integration programming in Oakland. We hope this is only the beginning.