Teens transform Boston as urban arts entrepreneurs

SOUTH BOSTON, MA—"Art" is an elusive idea of a career for people young and old—a bit like basketball fame or becoming an astronaut. Yet for the hundreds of public high school students who work at Artists for Humanity (AFH), art careers are becoming a thrilling reality. The non-profit's mission is to create meaningful employment for urban youth through creative arts. AFH is a study in attainable dreams: about what happens when high expectations for performance, discipline, and creativity meet the raw and eager energy of youth.

"Most of our participants come in off the sidewalk having never held a paintbrush," says Shane Massey, who started at AFH when we was 15 and now works as the office manager. "After a few months, they are making full-scale paintings, selling their work, and developing their own visions."

At 3 p.m., teenagers from public schools all over Boston set up easels, mix their paints and photo developing chemicals, rev up wood-crafting tools, and settle down to sculpture tables and graphic-design computers. Hip-hop beats pulse through the studios, and small groups gather in the hallways to plan collaborative projects. Participants begin in the painting studio, and can branch out into sculpture, woodcrafting, photography, design, fashion, and silkscreening.

Pushing the limits The program began in 1991 as a collaboration between Susan Rodgerson—a white, middle-class artist—and five African-American teen friends who started painting in her studio. The friends needed to sell their artwork in order to buy supplies and make more art. Sheer economics inspired an entrepreneurial zeal, and they approached Boston colleges, non-profits, and corporations as potential customers. An audience was found, and a program bloomed—with youth at the helm. Mars, 17, expresses his commitment this way: "You've just got to give all your might and create as much as you can. Do something that people have never seen before. That's what makes you an artist. Do something different."

Director Susan Rodgerson talks about the program "Our youth are valued for the work they do. They are respected. They are expected to do great work. I see it as a hand up, not a handout. We are all co-owners in this enterprise. Their work creates income that keeps this place going. People ask young adults all the time what they want out of life, and they want what we want: respect, responsibility, and relationships. It's the same. The rest is the thrill and the frill of being involved in the arts." Read more>>

Any public high school student in Boston can join AFH. After a period of apprenticeship, participants are paid seven dollars an hour to create. They clock in, clock out, and get a regular paycheck. When their art is sold, half of the profit goes to the program, and half to the artist's pocket. "We charge a fair dollar for the kids' work. We ask market value. We don't give it away or de-value the work," Rodgerson says.

Massiel Grullon began the program when she was twelve. "This is my home," she said. "To make art and get paid for it is the best job in the world. You can feel the love and creativity when you come in here." At seventeen, Grullon has sold thousands of dollars worth of her high-contrast, hyper-realistic paintings—and after taking a fashion workshop at AFH, is outfitted in her own designs.

"You don't really know you're a visual artist until somebody pushes your limits," says Omar, a third-year participant. Christie, 17, reflects, "It's good to be able to get into a certain form of art. It makes you think, it makes you feel relaxed. It's a talent that you have for yourself that you earn and you don't have to give it to anyone. It feels like you own it. It gives you something to be proud of."

Rather than formal instruction, participants have a master artist as a Mentor for each medium they choose to study. Mentor Ryan Conley says, "Teaching here is very intuitive. Every student has their own ideas and themes, and we work with everyone individually." Mentors also produce their own artwork side-by-side. Conley adds, "I work on my paintings right here; it shows that I'm focusing on my work. It's better to paint together than for me to just tell them things. And, the kids need a lot of room to make their own discoveries."

Beautifying Boston

The artwork that emerges from these discoveries beautifies buildings all over Boston. When Filene's commissioned a store window for Black History Month this year, AFH students welded larger-than-life steel human figures, and arrayed them in clothes depicting the history of black fashion.

Last year, FleetBoston bank commissioned a large-scale painting of modern Boston, based on Paul Gauguin's signature masterpiece, "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?" After hanging alongside the colorful Gauguin original in the Museum of Fine Arts, this painting greets travelers at Logan Airport, where it is on permanent display.

The very building that houses the program is perhaps the most arresting example of Boston urban landscape transformed in the hands of Artists for Humanity. The method of dreaming big—and collaborating with youth on every aspect of making dreams into reality—resulted in the $6.8 million EpiCenter, the most environmentally-friendly building in Boston. The EpiCenter utilizes passive solar design, photovoltaic solar panels, rainwater collection, and recyled materials. Gallery balconies are lined with car windshields salvaged from old Crown Victorias, and industrial-sized toilet paper dispensers are cut from the bottoms of 5-gallon plastic water jugs used by construction workers. "The building represents who we are and what we do," says Susan Rodgerson.

Though most come from low-income families, 95 percent of AFH participants go on to college, and two-thirds of them pursue careers in commercial or fine arts. "I have the highest expectations for young people, and they have the highest expectations of me. Our entire philosophy is build on Respect, Responsibility, and Relationships," says Founding Director Susan Rodgerson. That, it appears, is a simple formula for brilliant success in social entrepreneurship with youth.

Click below to:

View a photo gallery of Artists for Humanity.

Read an interview with program founder Susan Rodgerson.

Visit the Artists for Humanity website