YAI
Inspire. Create. Educate.


About Us
The Young Artists Initiative (YAI) promotes the participation of BIPOC (Black, indigenous, people of color) in the arts and gives young people the chance to work together to create art, impact their communities and schools, and mentor the next generation of artists.
How We Do It
Inspire. Create. Educate. These are the three main goals of the Young Artists Initiative.
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Inspire: We inspire BIPOC youth and encourage their participation in the arts by creating work that tells stories about and made by people who look like them. YAI also helps connect youth interested in the arts with mentors with YAI who have experience in various art forms.
Create: YAI creates opportunities for artists to be involved in arts education by sharing their work and working on projects, both individually and collectively, with artists of different disciplines.
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Educate: YAI believes in Nina Simone's thoughts that youth must know about prominent historical figures and heroes. Because of this, the content that YAI creates and shares hopes to educate youth about influential artists from a diverse background. We also allow artists to impact underserved communities by engaging in arts education events in educational and artistic spaces.​
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What We Offer
YAI artists can gain community service hours and internship experience by leading workshops and being a YAI mentor. Additionally, YAI gives artists exposure by sharing their work across our platforms.

It's an artist's duty to reflect the times in which we live.