MASSCreative's Youth Arts Action Initiative brings together Greater Boston youth arts organizations for opportunities to learn advocacy and storytelling skills and take action to build the youth arts community.
In February 2015, 15 organizations came together for the 1st Youth Arts Action Retreat including Institute of Contemporary Art, Hyde Square Task Force, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, ZUMIX, Walnut Hill School for the Arts, Boston Arts Academy, Boston Children’s Chorus, The Theater Offensive, The Urbano Project, Urbanity Dance, Artists for Humanity, Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, Cambridge Community Arts Center, The Mayor’s Youth Council, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council Creative Youth Development.
Check out the post about the Retreat in MCC's Creative Youth Development's blog, Seen and Heard.
In August 2015, with Boston's Cultural Planning Process in full-swing, the group came together again to make sure that young people have a voice in BostonCreates.
In April 2016, the cohort came together for the 2nd Youth Arts Action Retreat to own their roles as advocates. In addition to going deeper on how to tell stories for social change, youth participants learned about the local power dynamics in their neighborhoods and communities. Read more about Retreat here.
In the fall of 2016, MASSCreative is working with Citi Performing Arts Center to engage the Youth Arts Action Initiative in their Youth Arts for Social Justice Conference.
