Youth Make Voices Heard and Vision Clear Through The Arts

We have also been hearing from Boston’s arts community and the “Create the Vote” campaign, making the case for the importance of arts to the city. Yet despite so much discussion about Boston’s future, the voices of those poised to inherit that future have not been as prominent. At a recent site visit with the Urbano Project, I saw artwork created by young people that struck me as a powerful exception to this rule.

Through video and performance art on city sidewalks and shops, young people at Urbano are sparking dialogue and raising important questions and observations about identity, Boston’s neighborhoods, and the city many of us call home.

The Urbano Project serves close to 200 youth annually through its Jamaica Plain studio and involves young people in weekly skill-by-skill review of their art work. This year, young artists worked with Urbano’s 2013 “Emancipated City” theme to create, "Square Roots of Boston," a video juxtaposing Dudley Square to Copley Square: