The new Youth Design Academy got off to a great start with 2 events in June that provided an amazing introduction to our program for 12 brand new Youth Designers!
Youth Design Academy activities so far have included:
- • Professional workplace training by Roselys Esteve and Rose Delorme
of the Private Industry Council; - • Converse creative professionals Eli Irving, graphic designer, and Mickey Ruiz, photographer/studio manager, inspired the students with a great presentation of their work and discussion about their career paths;
- • collaborative map-making that helped students understand how Boston is configured with a goal of providing context and connection for their homes, schools, and key locations they will visit this summer;
- • teams of new and experienced Youth Designers worked together to analyze existing designs using key design vocabularly, and presented their analyses to the larger group.
Our new Youth Designers are a very diverse cohort from 8 Boston public schools plus Chelsea High. The students were selected after submitting applications, answers to essay questions, and art/design work samples; additionally each student interviewed with a group of 3-4 professional designers.
Youth Design Academy provides selected students with an intensive summer of art and design skill-building and design career exposure. The core of the summer program is a course in Design Fundamentals at MassArt, for which the students receive college credits, developed and taught by Youth Design Education Specialist and MassArt Assistant Professor of Design Alisa Aronson. Additionally students will attend field trips to design workplaces including Ideo and Digitas, attend exhibition tours at the MFA and the ICA, and participate in a range of activities that connect them with like-minded peers, college students, design professionals, and design educators, broadening their exposure to numerous facets of art and design with a focus on developing critical thinking and other college-readiness skills.
The June events were a great start to the summer; looking forward to many further adventures!
Written by Alisa Aronson
Youth Design Education Specialist, Youth Design Academy Instructor
Assistant Professor of Design, Massachusetts College of Art and Design