Youth Art Showcase
One good thing about being stuck at home is the extra time to make art! ReWA encourages our students to explore art as a way to express, reflect, and cultivate an image they could not with words. This year’s Annual Youth Art Showcase has gone virtual and features work of art by youth, ages 8-21, and reflecting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests. Art pieces include watercolor landscapes, acrylic self-portraits, pencil-drawn comics, cardboard rocket sculptures, and paper mache piggy banks, and many more.
ReWA Youth Instructor, Alexis Joshua, said, “Art is a universal language that allows different groups of people to understand each other’s culture, identity, and unique experiences. This entails building a strong community among youth that mirrors and celebrates themselves and one another.”
Youth featured in this showcase participate in ReWA’s three youth after-school programs: Project-based Learning (PBL), Youth Job Readiness Training (YJRT), and Post Secondary Success. The PBL program encouraged their students to do anything through art that allows them to reflect and/or escape from what’s going on in today’s world. The YJRT youth decided to create visual art presentations of Somali Dance Culture, Prayer Times, Youth Homelessness, Homework Help within Schools, Service of Immigrants, and the Hijab Community. Students demonstrated these themes through drawing, painting, creating diagrams, and dance.
ReWA also held an online art workshop with guest art teacher, Lori Leberer who shared her art lessons on drawing eyes.
Thank you to the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture for funding this project.