Since 2021, I’ve been working with Lane Arts Council as a Mentor Artist in the Design Arts Apprenticeship. This premier program connects professional artists with youth in Oregon’s Lane County for 10 weeks. Students gain practice and skills in design-centered arts and produce work for a public showcase.
I’ve gotten to work with middle and high school apprentices on incredible projects that are student-generated and strengths-based. I’ve learned so much from them, not only in digital art, but also music, shows, and games. Working with youth is always an incredibly rich and centering experience for me, and the Lane Arts Design Apprenticeship is absolutely one of my favorite programs!
In design apprenticeships, I generally focus on web-based interactive art. Apprentices learn basics in user-experience design using a Wix website that offers a built-in design suite. Recently, we’ve added more subjects including digital illustration, animation with Procreate Dreams, printed material, and learning about how artists sell their work.
For Winter term, I worked with my 7th group of apprentices. This group focused their web-based design on diverse styles of storytelling and subjects, including: a love letter to haunted houses, a diabolical department store, and a guide to avian appreciation. The apprentice artists also created print media to go with their web-based media.
Project Outline
Community and agency are two vital elements of the apprenticeship program. Since we spend 10 weeks– 2.5 hours per week for a total of 24 work hours together– it’s important we take the time to get to know each other and find some shared interests. We also spend the first few weeks learning the tools we’ll use. Along with website design on Wix, apprentices gain experience in digital illustration on iPads using Procreate (provided by Lane Arts Council).
With choice at the center of the program, apprentices start the project work with an open-ended prompt:
Projects will be about communicating something: expressing an idea, teaching about a subject, sharing a story about an experience (real or created).
The project should have an interactive element and can include printed media like stickers or zines.
Over the course of the 10 week program, apprentices draw, craft and code. In the end, they have a dedicated page on the website showcasing their artwork. They also have an artist profile they can continually refer to in their portfolio.
The Showcase
The program culminates in a public showcase during First Friday Artwalk in Eugene. Apprentices get to share their work with family, friends, and community members. Apprentices also have had the chance to gain experience setting up a booth to sell stickers and zines. This allows apprentices to get real experience with marketing including pricing materials and keeping track of inventory.
The apprentices put a lot of work into their projects, and the most rewarding part for me is to watch them talk about their work and share it with the community! You can see this groups’ work (and the work from past apprentice groups) at creativeaccessart.com/student-projects
Interested in classes for youth? Check out my classes page for what’s coming up!
