Artists For Humanity

 

Young painters hard at work in the studio.

Photo: Jeff Winning

Walk in the door and this is what you will find: a group of adolescent girls taking inventory of their newly designed T-shirts that are now ready for market; a cluster of young people around a computer completing a project for a client; two young painters working on a massive canvas; and another youth, with a professional artist creating a sculpture in the corner. The sound of tools and music surround you. The room buzzes with energy and concentration.

Ten years ago, Susan Rodgerson, artist, teacher, and entrepreneur, set out to address the lack of arts experiences within the Boston Public School system. Her vision was to inspire teens at an inner-city school to engage in the creative process through the visual arts. The intent was to communicate their experiences to a larger world, thereby empowering them and educating the community. She found young people hungry for the opportunity to have a voice in the world. Artists For Humanity began as, and continues to be, an entrepreneurial venture with the objective of producing and marketing art work by teens that reflects the rich cultural diversity of urban life to Boston's business community.

Artists For Humanity participants learn the techniques and tools of professional artists and the business world while experiencing education, employment, artistic exploration, and hands-on entrepreneurship. As a result, participants gain a sense of self-worth, ambition, and the capacity to play a meaningful role in the world beyond their neighborhoods. This experience produces life-transforming change for youth and for their communities.

Boston's business community increasingly turns to the vibrant talent of Artists For Humanity's young artists. Clients have purchased design services for T-shirts, calendars, full-scale murals, annual reports, educational materials and national health campaigns.

Next year, Artists For Humanity will move to a new home, but some things won't change. There too, as Mary Kelly, the executive director of the Massachusetts Cultural Council notes, they will continue "to walk that fine line between promoting the arts as a commodity and arts as a means of creative expression and exploration."