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The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque is currently hosting the 44th Annual Native American Student Art Show. The art show features the works of Indigenous youth from kindergarten through 12th grade who attend schools all across New Mexico.

The exhibition opened on Nov. 23 and can be seen through Feb. 6.

This year, the show’s theme is “Water is life.”

“For Native American youth in New Mexico, this year’s exhibition activates a responsive avenue to channel their understandings of the vitality and sustaining force of water into innovative and artistic expressions,” a placard in the exhibition room reads.

All of the pieces in the art show are an exploration of what this prompt entails. They range from literal portrayals, which represent the importance of water to Indigenous communities, to abstract interpretations of the theme.

The art show is also a contest, which is judged by multiple individuals and organizations. These include NSRGNTS, a local Indigenous artist collective; Sonny Ray Olguin, a student in the University of New Mexico’s Museum Studies graduate program; and the NM-INSPIRES and CHANGES centers, two organizations based at UNM that focus on the impact of climate change on New Mexico.

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The New Hampshire Children’s System of Care (CSoC) is accepting submissions for the seventh annual Magnify Voices Expressive Art Contest. Open to students in grades five through 12, the contest invites youth to share creative works reflecting their experiences with and connections to mental health. Submissions will be accepted through April 20.

The contest, part of CSoC’s effort to raise awareness and reduce stigma around youth mental health, encourages artistic entries in various forms, including short videos, songs, performances, interpretive dances (two minutes or less), essays or poems (1,000 words or less), and visual designs such as sculptures, photographs, paintings, or dioramas.

“The Magnify Voices contest provides a forum for youth to share their stories and raise awareness about mental health,” said Deb Jurkoic, committee member and NAMI New Hampshire Family Network Coordinator. “These works continue to make an impact as they are shared statewide, allowing the artists to engage with their communities.”

An exhibit featuring all submissions will take place at a celebration event on May 21, where 12 finalists will be announced. Each finalist will receive a $250 cash prize, and their work will be featured in an academic planner. The event will also include a People’s Choice Award, selected by audience vote.

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Do you know a student interested in the environment and art? We're looking for 8th-12th grade Raleigh students to show how they would help protect streams and lakes from water pollution through visual art.

The Capture It! Stormwater Arts Contest is open until February 28 and a $500 cash prize will be awarded to winners in each category (artwork or video). Winners will be recognized at the Earth Day event at Dorothea Dix Park and select artwork will be displayed at the Pullen Arts Center Youth & Teen Gallery.

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Local youth are invited to showcase their talent and creativity during the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Art Exhibition and Gallery hosted by the Anything for Our Youth Group on Saturday, January 18, 2025. The organizers are planning a floating art gallery exhibition at 5:00 PM during the annual NAACP Freedom Banquet, which will be held at Commons on the Green, located at 200 Country Club Blvd., Lexington, NC. For ticket information regarding the banquet, please contact NAACP members Sharon Hargrave at (336) 225-1718 or Denise Clodfelter at (336) 300-0649.

The art event offers school-aged youth a unique opportunity to honor the legacy of Dr. King. "The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Art Exhibition is a powerful way for our youth and community to celebrate Dr. King's legacy through creativity and reflection," said Tina Royal, Director of Anything for Our Youth Group. "As we enter our third year, we remain dedicated to celebrating his vision of unity, equality, and hope by providing young artists a platform to express how his dream continues to inspire them today."

All art entries must be completed and submitted to teachers, afterschool directors, or dropped off at the Arts Theater 202, located at 202 N. Main Street, Lexington, by January 13, 2025. Direct submissions to Arts Theater 202 can be made Wednesday through Friday between 11:00 AM and 3:00 PM. To participate and obtain guidelines, please register through Google:

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Over the course of one month, the Mayasem Association for Culture and Arts, with the support of UNESCO, urgently reached 5000 children and youth, alongside 3000 caregivers in the central and southern governorates of the Gaza Strip, providing them with much needed psychosocial support. Close to 10% of participants included people with disabilities. 

Fostering Cultural Connection and Belonging

The activity’s primary goal was to nourish and immerse the participating children and youth in their cultural heritage, strengthening their sense of belonging amid hardship and daily life challenges. This was achieved by implementing a series of engaging trainings and performances in Khan Younis andcDeir Al-Balah areas in Gaza, designed to engage with participants and uplift their spirits.

Highlights of activities:

Theater: Children participated in theater sessions, where they were trained to express themselves in relation to their lives through performances and storytelling.

Dabkeh: In the traditional dance sessions, children learned to perform dabkeh and traditional dance to the tunes of cultural music and communal spirit, celebrating their heritage. Dabkeh was inscribed in 2023 on UNESCO’s Representative List of Intangible Cultural heritage.

Music: Music sessions allowed children to sing together and foster a sense of community and joy. The combination of singing, dancing, and playing musical instruments helped children express themselves freely.

Popular Games: Engaging in traditional games, the children developed self-confidence and social skills. In addition to bringing them joy, the games were instrumental in teaching teamwork and social cohesion.

Drawing of Cultural Sites: Participants were introduced to 20 significant cultural sites in Gaza, which they then illustrated, providing a unique opportunity for the children and youth to learn about their heritage and express their creativity through art, while keeping the memories of these places alive.

Throughout these activities, UNESCO and its partner delivered necessary recreational activities and psychosocial support to children, youth and their families, while celebrating and reviving their cultural heritage.

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A lot has to go right to make a living in the arts. Over the past few years a crop of paid programs for young creatives, from teens through recent college graduates, have sprung up to offer a glimpse into what it takes to launch a career. Unlike traditional arts programming or summer camps, these programs focus on skills like collaboration, curation, budgeting, pitching, planning, networking and follow-through in the arts industries. In other words, participants learn parts of the job that make up “the messy middle,” as Michael Stout, community engagement director for Carbondale Arts, called it. 

“It’s not just this glamorous gig of having an idea then presenting it to the public,” Stout said. 

Stout runs the teen creative apprenticeships in Carbondale, an opportunity for 14-19 year olds to collaborate on a project under the guidance of local artists. The teens are paid $14 an hour to attend weekly, four-hour studio sessions from January until June.

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Applying for a visa is long-winded, demanding extensive documentation that usually requires a lawyer. First-time applicants can spend anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 on the entire procedure. The majority goes towards legal costs, a $1,015 to $1,055 filing fee (which recently increased by more than 120 percent from $460) and if time is tight, a $2,805 premium processing fee, a 12 percent increase from $2,500 previously.

Herrensauna resident Salome told Resident Advisor that she spent $5,500 on her O-1, $3,000 of which was taken up by application fees, lawyers and union costs. Two months after filing her application and ten days before her trip stateside, she was asked to submit ten additional recommendation letters, which required expedited processing. "Can you imagine how stressful that was? In the end, I made it but believe me, it was days of panicking and stressing the hell out," she said.

Artists tend to shoulder these staggering costs themselves, placing those without savings at a disadvantage. The government's strict eligibility criteria, which insists on proof of international recognition, is another challenge for niche names who lack a global footprint. If acts are signed with a booking agency, the company can pay upfront as loans against future earnings, but for unrepresented talents who aren't well-off and don't have much media buzz, this exclusionary visa policy can be an automatic disqualifier.

"Foreign nationals feel daunted by the visa process, often to the point where they give up on touring the US altogether," said Sigmund. "By the time we speak with prospective clients, many have already written off the possibility of coming stateside." If the process was less intimidating, more artists would actively pursue touring the US, he continued. Last year, Surefire booked 100 tours for international artists, out of which 18 required visas.

It's rare for independent promoters, clubs and festivals to chip in. "We don't have the space or ammo to foot the bill for the visa fees on top of performance fees, lodging, flights, etc." said Jacob Hopes, talent buyer and chief production manager at Chicago's Podlasie Club, which only hosts overseas artists with existing visas.

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Not everyone made it to the top floors of Oceanwide Plaza — the abandoned billion-dollar development of luxury high-rises in downtown Los Angeles — but the graffiti artist called SEK was determined to get there. Dressed in his usual hoodie, and with a paint-splattered satchel over his shoulder, he slipped onto the property through one of many openings in the surrounding fence, and began heading up 52 floors.

That was in early February, when local graffiti artists first began hitting the construction site’s three towers after becoming newly aware that the property was mostly unguarded. In that first week, the buildings would be smothered in paint, as taggers left their names and acronyms in elaborate shapes and colors: “Hopess,” “Tang,” “Eels,” “6FT,” “Ska,” “DWP,” “420,” “Libre,” “Serb,” “Sweets,” “Thrash” and hundreds more. Others painted cartoon pandas and left statements of purpose (e.g., “Forever Living Krazy!”).

That night at the top of the main tower, SEK found a spot to leave his name spelled out in bubble letters painted in silver, red and black. Splashing his mark onto the glass of what was once destined to be someone’s luxury penthouse condo was part of a collision of class and culture in the heart of Los Angeles, steps away from the Crypto.com Arena, home to the star-studded Grammy Awards and the L.A. Lakers.

At 35, SEK has been a graffiti artist for nearly 20 years, and he spoke on the condition of anonymity. Graffiti is considered vandalism in the California Penal Code, and always carries the risk of prosecution. “Graffiti has taught me that there’s no waiting for permission. You just have to take chances and express yourself by any means necessary,” SEK said later in the first of two interviews, one on the phone and another during a walk through downtown L.A. His handiwork on the tower is documented on his personal Instagram account and in abundant drone footage of the buildings posted on YouTube.

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Landlords wanting to attract young professionals once scrubbed off the rebellious scrawls. That was before graffiti moved from countercultural to mainstream. Now building owners are willing to pay for it.

From Berlin to London to Miami, the wider acceptance of graffiti has attracted developers looking to expand into trendy areas, companies wanting to relocate to hipper neighborhoods and brands seeking creative ways to advertise their products.

But that attention to once overlooked neighborhoods has pushed up rents, leaving artists, fans and local officials with a quandary: What happens after the street art that brought character becomes commodified?

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Urban Squash Cleveland (USC), nestled in Ohio City, is a youth development program for 4th through 12th graders that provides free tutoring, homework help, enrichment activities, support after high school, and coaching in squash, a fast-paced racquet sport. Squash is a racquet sport played in a small, four-walled court most often with two people or four in a doubles. The ball is unique in that it is rubber and does not bounce much and needs to be warmed up before play. The sport is fast moving, easy to learn, and tactical. It has been referred to as physical chess.

“I think the most important thing for people to understand is that even though squash is a bit weird, and most people are like, ‘What, the vegetable?’, it’s a really welcoming sport,” said Kai, now a senior who has been part of the program since 5th grade. 

While the sport is important, the priority at USC is academics and character building. USC is part of the Squash and Education Alliance (SEA), an international network of organizations providing year-round, long-term support to young people through teaching them squash. USC board president Joe Juster said, “It’s all about giving kids an opportunity. And all of this is just in service of that. You can change one kid’s life a whole lot.” Juster is clear on his goals for USC: “I want to graduate eight kids a year, ten kids a year, and have them all be admitted to their first-choice school. That can be anything from community college to Harvard, but I want to put them on that path. I’m a firm believer in the value of a college education — all that it can mean in terms of an enriched life and a certain level of financial security.” 

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The conversation around street art In Thailand is deeply intertwined with issues of freedom of expression and censorship. With laws that tread a fine line between protecting cultural values and suppressing dissent, street artists find themselves at the heart of a legal debate. This article delves into the legal perspectives surrounding street art in Thailand, shedding light on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for artists in this dynamic field.

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A visitor to Tunis is immediately taken in by the city's graffiti-covered walls, adorned with colourful sketches and slogans in French, English and Arabic.

The country's graffiti scene has evolved and flourished since the political uprising in 2011, which led to the fall of Tunisia's long-standing dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and brought in a new political and cultural era.

The political slogans on the walls became more outspoken, and artists took on new daring projects.

While there has always been graffiti in Tunisia, many of the bolder and bigger paintings emerged after 2011.

Despite graffiti being illegal under Tunisian law, it seems authorities have allowed various artworks to remain up across the country, with some becoming fixtures of Tunisia's urban landscape.

On Djerba island, authorities allowed a youth project to turn a part of the old neighbourhood of Houmt Souk into a walk-through gallery of graffiti by local artists.

The project, now called Djerba Hood, has become a popular tourist attraction.

Graffiti’s reputation as a simple act of vandalism started changing and people’s views shifted in support of the messages it carries and the colour and life it can bring to otherwise dull architecture.

Sociologist and street art specialist Eya Ben Mansour says Tunisians have always used the walls of the public space as a canvas for their thoughts.

“We find the first roots in the nineties with writings on prisons’ walls,” Ms Ben Mansour told The National.

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The Urban Youth Racing School is focused on getting underprivileged kids interested in STEM careers by teaching them about motorsports.

For the last 26 years, the Fishtown-based UYRS has been teaching students about engineering and technology by framing it around racing cars and drones. Founder and executive director Anthony Martin wants kids who are underrepresented in the racing industry to know they can successfully pursue whatever career path they choose.

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Youth mental health in urban environments is significantly better when more nature is incorporated into city design. 

A new study from University of Waterloo researchers suggests that forest bathing, the simple method of being calm and quiet amongst the trees, observing nature around you while breathing deeply, can help youth de-stress and boost health and well-being.

The study was the first ever to collect on-site, real-time survey data from adolescents about their emotional responses to various urban environments like a transit hub, residential streets, trails, parks, and waterways. Natural urban spaces were consistently related to significantly higher scores in positive outcomes.

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Envision vibrant urban classrooms, alive with the natural rhythm of nature, allowing students to emerge as custodians of Michigan’s aquatic treasures. Picture the educational landscape transformed beyond traditional confines, dismantling barriers between the urban sprawl and the unconcealed wonders of the wild. In an extraordinary collaboration involving the Michigan Wildlife Council, Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and Real Times Media, a Detroit-based English Language Arts teacher is helping reshape the educational narrative. This groundbreaking initiative unfolds as a vibrant ecosystem, where students actively participate in raising salmon from eggs to release, presenting a hands-on approach that transcends textbooks and lectures.

Monica DeGarmo, an English Language Arts Teacher at the Academy of the Americas High School, is pioneering this unique wildlife education initiative.  DeGarmo ‘s journey into wildlife education began unexpectedly during a field trip to the Belle Isle Water Festival in Fall 2022. The catalyst? A student-led impromptu search for crawdads during a canoeing adventure on Lake Okonoka. DeGarmo shares her experience, stating, ” For context, this is a student who was often unmotivated in class and out of nowhere, being in nature shined a whole new light on who he is as a person and the wealth of knowledge and skills that he had to share. He was in his element. I think one of the most exciting things about being a teacher is building relationships with your students and finding creative ways to make what we’re learning interesting and relevant to them.”

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Located in the heart of Woodland, Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer (TANA) is more than just an art gallery. Co-founded by the Chicano artists Malaquias Montoya and Carlos Francisco Jackson, TANA aims to provide local artists and youth with resources to express themselves through art and culture. 

TANA was founded as a “collaborative partnership between the Chicana/o Studies Program at the University of California, Davis and the greater Woodland community,” according to their website.

Montoya stated that his motivation for starting a Latinx and Chicanx workshop space in Woodland came from his own experiences of being surrounded by workshops in Oakland during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Local youth would frequent these workshops to create art that expressed their activism for social issues while also bonding with community members. He noted that silkscreening was the most popular.

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The San Diego American Indian Health Center is easy to see from the street in Bankers Hill, with beautiful Native American artwork on the face of the building.

But right next door is another part of the organization that's harder to find — their youth outreach center.

It's been providing critical programming for decades and bridging the gap between generations in San Diego’s native community.

“We are considered 'urban Indians' because we all live in the urban area of San Diego. There are 18 reservations that surround San Diego but they are Kumeyaay,” said 89-year-old Randy Edmonds.

The elder said the youth center is a space for Native Americans of all nations to connect with their roots.

He and his family belong to the Kiowa tribe of Oklahoma. His son Larry helps lead some of the youth programs.

“(We're) having them learn their language. We get them involved in art. We have some classes in beading, moccasins, talking circles,” Larry said. “A lot of Natives will come in and get involved in a circle and talk about the things that they go through, and how we can help them in their lives.”