The Arts Fund’s Teen Arts Mentorship Program has a new collaboration this year with Pianos on State. The beloved interactive public art and music that takes place every October in downtown Santa Barbara invites Santa Barbara County high school students to work with past piano artist and mentor Irene Ramirez this September. As a group, students will contribute ideas and elements, then work together to prepare and paint their final design alongside other Pianos on State artists at the Community Arts Workshop.
The final piano design will be on view during the Pianos on State public art event this October. Students will also have the opportunity to exhibit their design ideas and sketches during the annual Teen Arts Mentorship Exhibition.
In addition to the Pianos on State mentorship opportunity, applications are now open for additional free mentorship programs in both north and south county, including: Typewriter Poetry with Simon Kiefer, What’s Next? with Jamie Dufek, and Poetry & Self-Expression with Cie Gumucio.
As one of the 2024 teen participants said about the experience, “This mentorship helped me see myself as an artist without guilt or expectation. Besides helping me open up and share a creative space with other people, it gave me a freedom to see the ideas inside myself waiting to happen.”
The Arts Fund’s Teen Arts Mentorship Program provides tuition-free mentorship, pairing small groups of high school students with professional working artists. The 30+ year program has worked with more than 1,500 students, providing arts enrichment opportunities outside of a typical classroom setting. All students 13-18 are invited to apply to one or more programs. For more information, click here.
