“new growth: Courage in creativity”

Root Division is excited to present New Growth 2021: Courage in Creativity, our annual Youth Art Exhibition featuring student artwork created in Root Division’s free after-school Youth Education Program. This virtual school year has come with unique challenges and new opportunities. To commemorate this year in the digital classroom, we are excited to feature a mix of artworks from our Teaching Artist Fellows alongside courageously creative new student artworks. New Growth is a family-friendly show in celebration of Root Division’s Youth Education Program, which recruits, trains, and places Studio Artists to teach free art classes in one of our partner sites—creating a link between practicing artists and the schools’ communities.

This year we took our programming to Zoom to continue offering high quality arts education programming to young artists in our community. In a typical year, Root Division provides free art classes to over 1,000 underserved students ages 5-24. Our Studio Artists volunteer 1-3 hours per week, acting as “artists-in-residence” for a semester at the partner site. Root Division assists the artists in formulating effective, age-appropriate lesson plans and project-based learning curricula while offering them guidance in working with youth. As a result, artists gain valuable experience teaching within the community, and young students are able to interact with adult mentors in the art-making process.