Shamel Pitts (2003 Dance) recalls the feeling in 2020 of emerging from six months of dancing in his living room and beginning residency at New York Live Arts, in partnership with YoungArts, for development of his new work, Touch of RED. “To come back to a theater, to be back…
Recognizing young artists’ need for a sense of community and desire to collaborate, YoungArts partnered with Aon on a series of virtual sessions focused on interdisciplinary collaboration and led by acclaimed jazz saxophonist and bandleader Javon Jackson and award-winning poet, writer and activist Nikki Giovanni.Modeled on their recently released album…
What does it take to establish and sustain a creative practice?Over the course of three days in May 2022, 40 YoungArts award winners across 10 disciplines gathered virtually to explore essential questions around the creative process and focus on new tools and concepts for their own artistic practices.Led by Torya…
As a visual artist, Juan Jose Cielo (2015 Visual Arts) chases the extraordinary in the everyday. His paintings imagine spatial landscapes, rendered in a realist style but portraying objects and scenes from his wildest imagination. Within these celestial tableaus, Cielo depicts stereotypical LatinX figures who look more like caricatures of…
Composer and musician Molly Joyce (2010 Classical Music) has an impaired left hand from a car accident she was in 20 years ago. Since then, she’s been on a journey from denying her disability to embracing it as a centerpiece of her artistic practice. This spring, Joyce began her time…
When I reach Michi Jigarjian by phone on a Wednesday afternoon, she cautions that she’s left her camera off because she’s driving. “I just left Rockaway Beach, where we’ve just wrapped up on a community day with artist Julia Chiang that brought 50 kids together with the artist to create…
In late January 2022, Bruce Bennett (2014 Photography) began his residency at Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York in partnership with YoungArts, turning his lens on his relationship to celebrate the inherent magic of Black Love. Concluding with a public exhibition titled “Easy When The Love Don’t…
At 18 years old, YoungArts exposed me to a world I had never experienced—one week in January 1990 immersed in the company of artists from all over the country. I was blown away by the intimate and meaningful conversations with my peers, painters, sculptors, musicians, dancers and writers. We were…
In December 2021, Chris Rogerson (2007 Classical Music) collaborated with Nu Deco Ensemble to premiere his new composition, “Sacred Earth,” at Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts with support from YoungArts. Presented with video by Emmy-nominated director and National Geographic photographer Keith Ladzinski and vocals from…
Desmond Richardson’s virtual dance performance, Without Further Delay, brought together nine 2021 YoungArts award winners from across the country. Commissioned by YoungArts in partnership with Aon, this performance investigates the current moment by exploring elements of isolation, confinement, communality and perseverance.Choreographer Richardson has been hailed by The New York Times…
Commissioned by YoungArts, Together, a short film unites the work of YoungArts award winners and notable guest artists in an enchanting animated short that underscores powerful messages of solidarity and interdependence. Each frame of this film was sold as a one-of-a-kind print to support YoungArts.The film came together with the…
