Support Art Education and Inspire Young Artists

YoungArts is gearing up for its 2017-18 season, which promises to be another exciting year for the organization. Kicking off with IMAGINATION LAND: Fantastical Narrative, an alumni exhibition curated by YoungArts master teach Derrick Adams, YoungArts has a full calendar of energetic programming and events on the horizon, including signature regional weeks and robust programs that will highlight the organization’s talented alumni.

Visual, Literary, Design and Performing Artists 15-18 Years Old Encouraged to Apply to National YoungArts Foundation

Call For 2018 Applications Open Through October 13, 2017

Through October 13, emerging artists in the visual, literary, design and performing arts ages 15–18 or in high school grades 10–12 are encouraged to apply to YoungArts to participate in one of the most comprehensive programs dedicated to supporting and propelling young artists. YoungArts winners receive the opportunity to participate in intensive programs nationwide; engage with renowned mentors; the chance to be nominated as a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts; monetary awards, including prizes of up to $10,000; and ongoing support as they work to achieve their professional and artistic goals. Prospective candidates should submit applications online at http://www.youngarts.org/apply 

YoungArts winners are designated as a Finalist, Honorable Mention or Merit winner through a blind adjudication process by an independent panel of highly accomplished artists. The 2018 Finalists, the most talented artists from across the nation, will attend the organization’s signature program, National YoungArts Week, in Miami from January 7–14. During the week, winners work with distinguished artists in intensive master classes, workshops and seminars and share their work with the public through performances and screenings at New World Symphony as well as writers’ readings and an exhibition curated by Pérez Art Museum Miami Assistant Curator Jennifer Inacio on the YoungArts campus. National YoungArts Week will culminate with the YoungArts Backyard Ball performance and gala. The event, presented by Max Mara, celebrates the year’s outstanding YoungArts winners and raises funds to support YoungArts programs.

New and Expanded Initiatives

YoungArts is expanding its support across three areas: professional development; artistic development; and presentation opportunities.

Professional Development

Building on the success of YoungArts’ model of mentorship with master artists across disciplines, day-long symposia called Up Next will feature talks, workshops and panels that help further prepare YoungArts alumni for successful careers in their artistic fields. Led by industry experts and renowned artists, the symposia will take place in New York on November 6 and Los Angeles on November 13, and will each culminate in a public program.

Artistic Development

Shining a national spotlight on Miami as a place where artists are supported and cultural momentum is growing, YoungArts is offering its alumni with roots in the area an opportunity to participate in In Process: Homecoming, an artist-in-residence program dedicated to collaboration. The program will provide artists with time, space and resources to create work and encourages them to recruit other YoungArts alumni to participate, experiment and innovate with them. At the conclusion of the residency, the artists will showcase their work in the neighborhood where they grew up, further expanding YoungArts’ programs into communities throughout Miami.

Presentation Opportunities

The YoungArts Gallery has hosted exhibitions by YoungArts master teachers, winners and alumni, including Olafur Eliasson, Daniel Arsham and Hernan Bas since 2013. This fall, YoungArts will present IMAGINATION LAND: Fantastical Narrative, a group exhibition of works by 11 YoungArts alumni curated by multidisciplinary artist and YoungArts master teacher Derrick Adams. On view from September 9 through Miami Art Week, the exhibition features artists whose works respond to and are in conversation with consumerism, gender roles, the environment, and ceremonial ritual. Including video, sculpture, painting and performative works, the exhibition explores how the mechanics of art production play a major part in the way we see ourselves as products of our surroundings. Artists include YoungArts alumni from the past five years: Elle Cox, Glenn Davis, Su Wan Kim, Mateo Nava, Mika Rosenberg, Sebastian Ruiz, Celia Shaheen, SWAG FUTURE David Correa x Alberto Checa, Cornelius Tulloch, and Wade Winslow.

YoungArts' celebrated Outside the Box series, which features multidisciplinary performances by YoungArts alumni on the YoungArts Plaza will continue on November 4, 2017 with Outside the Box: Yara Travieso. Director and choreographer Yara Travieso, known for creating hybrid works of cinema, opera, theatre and dance, will curate an all-women YoungArts alumni music festival presented within one of her signature immersive set designs and alongside Travieso’s cutting-edge transmedia choreography.

Next summer, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education, YoungArts will present the first ever Visual Arts Alumni Showcase in Washington, D.C. Notably, for the past 34 years, YoungArts has partnered with the Department of Education on the U.S. Presidential Scholars program and serves as the sole nominating agency for the U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts.

Mark your calendars for IMAGINATION LAND: Fantastical Narrative

Curated by Derrick Adams, IMAGINATION LAND: Fantastical Narrative is a group exhibition featuring YoungArts alumni whose works respond to and are in conversation with consumerism, gender roles, the environment, and ceremonial ritual. Including video, sculpture, painting and performative works, the exhibition explores how the mechanics of art production play a major part in the way we see ourselves as products of our environment. Provocative, complex and self-referential, the exhibition proposes new ideas and concepts of external objects, fuses the possible with the impossible, and invites the viewer into a space of self-discovery.

Exhibition Opening Saturday, September 9 \ 5-8 PM

YoungArts Gallery \ 2100 Biscayne Blvd, Miami

On view until December 15

Free and open to the public. RSVP at imaginationland.eventbrite.com

We have an exciting season ahead! Be sure to check our website at www.youngarts.org for the most up to date information on programming and event dates.

Happy May! This month we look back on two of YoungArts’ regional programs, YoungArts Los Angeles and YoungArts New York, the second annual New York gala, YoungArts’ first photography exhibition, and we look forward to what promises to be another exciting season in 2017-18!

YoungArts Los Angeles Recap

(March 28 – April 2, 2017)

The National YoungArts Foundation’s fifth annual YoungArts Los Angeles program, presented in partnership with Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA offered approximately 70 YoungArts Winners the exceptional opportunity to learn from, connect and collaborate with peers and artistic luminaries. Presented as part of a new partnership with CAP UCLA, this year’s Los Angeles student master classes and public offerings took place on the UCLA campus.

Public events included a jazz instrumental performance directed by the distinguished Dr. Ron McCurdy; writers’ readings led by Joan Morgan; a classical music performance directed by celebrated cellist Jeffery Zeigler; a multidisciplinary performance directed by award-winning dancer and choreographer John Heginbotham; and a visual arts exhibition curated by John Tain, Assistant Curator, Modern & Contemporary Collections, Getty Research Institute.

The intensive week included interdisciplinary workshops and concentrated master classes with accomplished masters in their field, including; Transparent producer Joan Scheckel; Jazz musician Alan Pasqua; Award-winning author Jeff Chang; New York Times bestselling author Daniel José Older; Los Angeles Philharmonic violinist Vijay Gupta; Multi-media artist Jim Drain; Associate Artistic Director of Heidi Duckler Dance Theater Teresa Barceló; and the award-winning independent filmmaking duo of Nancy Savoca and Rich Guay.

YoungArts New York Recap

(April 25-30, 2017)

The National YoungArts Foundation 2017 YoungArts New York program welcome approximately 75 of this year’s YoungArts Winners to New York to learn, connect and collaborate with their peers and renowned artists.

Interdisciplinary workshops, public performances, and seminars and master classes were led by creative leaders such as acclaimed author Sir Salman Rushdie, dancer and choreographer Nora Chipaumire, visual artists Mickalene Thomas and Jose Párlá, Tony Award-winning vocal coach Joan Lader, and Grammy-nominated saxophonist Ben Wendell. Public programming began on Friday, April 28 with a visual arts, design and photography exhibition at Sotheby’s New York. Events at Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) included a dance, theater, voice and jazz performance directed by Grammy nominee Michael McElroy (1985 Winner in Musical Theater) and saxophonist Adam Larson (2009 Winner in Jazz), both YoungArts alumni; and a classical music concert and writers’ readings directed by acclaimed pianist Elizabeth Joy Roe (2000 Winner in Classical Music), and author and award-winning journalist Joan Morgan.

YoungArts New York Gala

(April 20, 2017)

On Thursday, April 20 the National YoungArts Foundation welcomed 280 of New York City’s top cultural and community leaders, philanthropists, celebrities and art aficionados to the second annual YoungArts New York Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Temple of Dendur in the Sackler Wing. Presented in collaboration with luxury brand Swarovski, with support from Max Mara, the event was hosted by honorary co-chairs Debbie Allen, Agnes Gund and Sir Salman Rushdie, as well as gala co-chairs Sarah Arison and Thomas Wilhelm, and Gillian Hearst Simonds and Christian Simonds.

The YoungArts New York Gala was emceed by former Gossip Girl and The Knick actress Zuzanna Szadkowski (1997 Winner in Theater and U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts) and included a series of interdisciplinary performance vignettes  directed by YoungArts alumni Jake Goldbas (2007 Winner in Jazz), featuring soul singer and songwriter Grace Weber (2006 Winner in Voice), jazz singer, songwriter and bassist Kate Davis (2009 Winner in Jazz and U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts), R&B/pop singer and songwriter and The Voice Season 8 Top 5 contestant India Carney (2011 Winner in Theater, Voice and U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts), modern dancer Javon Jones (2016 Winner in Dance and inaugural Max Mara Young Visionary Award recipient) alongside four recent YoungArts dance alumni, and more.

Enlighted: Contemporary Photography

(Opened May 5, 2017)

National YoungArts Foundation (YoungArts) presents its first-ever exhibition dedicated solely to photography, Enlightened: Contemporary Photography by YoungArts Alumni. Featuring the works of 27 artists in Photography, Visual Arts, and Design disciplines, this multi-generational show is curated by photography luminary and YoungArts master teacher and panelist Michelle Dunn Marsh.

Enlightened celebrates the work of established alumni such as photographers Thomas Carr and Corinne May Botz who were YoungArts winners in 1982 and 1995, respectively, alongside a younger generation of artists including Cidgy Bossuet (2012), Aaron Cohen (2016) and Maxwell Zengage (2016). Spanning 34 years between the eldest and the youngest of participants, the exhibition explores photography across time as a twenty-first century medium. By looking at history and contemporary techniques, artists analyze their role in time-preservation and present investigations into the contemporary photographer’s viewpoint, intuitions and artistic choices.

Please see below for a comprehensive list of upcoming calendar dates for the season. Be sure to check our website at www.youngarts.org for the most up to date information on programs and events.

Campus Programs:

Outside the Box

May 20, 2017 | Daniel Bernard Roumain

(Ticket Price: Free)

Links:

• Salman Rushdie, Debbie Allen, and Christian Slater Spend a Night
• Torrance Hall Awarded 2017 Max Mara Young Visionary Award
• YoungArts Los Angeles: Visual Arts Opening Exhibition