Art for City Youth brings San Francisco youth and artists together to share conversation and art-making through activities such as Open Studios Youth programming and Kaleidoscope community art events. Through student-centered inquiry and artmaking activities led by our Teaching Artists, ACY programs encourage art appreciation and use art to foster academic skills, promote self-expression, and build relationships between artists and the communities they live and work in.

A product of this program is the directory of Artists as Teachers -- a listing of professional artists who are available to teach at schools and community centers on a short-term or ongoing basis.

Open Studios Youth Programming

Tours for Youth: Art for City Youth provides artist-led tours of the SF Open Studios Exhibition held at the SomArts Main Gallery from October 7-28. Students from nearby elementary schools and neighborhood youth programs are led by ArtSpan Teaching Artists in individualized tours exploring the works of the over 400 local artists that are featured in the expansive exhibition.

Art and Literacy In-School Program: In 2005, with a grant from the San Francisco Foundation, ACY offered a pilot in-class program to Bessie Camichael Elementary School students who participated in the Open Studios exhibition tours. In collaboration with Community ArtReach, ArtSpan Teaching Artists received training in Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) approach, a learner-centered method of engaging with young people about art which facilitates the development of communication skills and critical thinking.

The 2007-2008 school year is structured as follows:

1. The Teaching Artist visits the classroom prior to the classroom field trip to the San Francisco Open Studios Exhibition
2. The second session takes place at the San Francisco Open Studios Exhibition.
3. The third session is a hands-on art activity designed by the Teaching Artist in collaboration with the classroom teacher through which the students can experience being artists themselves.
4. The fourth through eleventh sessions are presented an 8-week, hands-on residency program through which Teaching Artists provide the students with an extended art project designed to expand vocabulary, increase cultural awareness, and build art making skills.

In addition to the documented academic benefits of the Visual Thinking Strategies approach, students learn through this program that art can be a lifetime pursuit, that diverse viewpoints can coexist, and that they can create something that inspires discourse.