The New Arts Center, a pillar in Newton and surrounding communities, was founded as a non-profit community art education venue, it provides teens at all levels of ability, opportunities to make, exhibit, see, and discuss art.
Various seasonal art classes from home decor to watercolor painting to stained glass are offered and sorted by skill level, instructors, and on-site or online classes.
According to senior Skye Bentis who has dabbled in a wide variety of the classes offered for teens from freshman to junior year, “The ceramics were especially great because you had a lot of creative freedom to make what you want but still had sufficient guidance from the teacher.”
According to New Arts Center’s education coordinator Sarah Moriarty, the New Arts Center has recently received a grant, acquiring twenty new iPads and allowing them to expand the range of digital art classes offered.
Aside from classes, the New Arts Center encourages teens to apply for their youth leadership program, an internship funded through the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
The internship lasts a total of ten weeks and each participant earns a salary of 15 dollars an hour, eight hours per week, for a total of ten weeks.
According to Moriarty, “The interns will meet with a member of our team and get to learn about how marketing contributes to exhibitions and studios.” The internship allows teens to learn practical skills that are needed to be an artist professionally.
Interns will also work on a passion project throughout the course of ten weeks where they will study a realm of arts and come up with a project that resonates with them.
“Some of the projects that have been done in the past are a pop-up exhibit of student artwork with a pamphlet of all of the artist’s statements, a supply drive, an online art show, and a public mural.” according to Moriarty.
At the end of the ten weeks, the interns will develop a resume and cover letters and they will do significant research on different jobs that artists can pursue.
According to one of last year’s interns, senior Lyuba Lemdyasova, her experience as an intern was “very inspiring, and showed me that it is possible to pursue a career as an artist.”
Lemdyasova added that the experience expanded her artistic horizons and the passion project inspired her to try different art styles, creating a well-rounded portfolio by the end of her experience as an intern.
Teen open studio time with guest artists will also be offered starting Sept. 20 with guest Andromeda Lisle, an indigenous artist. During open studio time, teens will learn about the significance of animal symbolism in indigenous art and create their own art inspired by indigenous culture.
Teens can also become involved with the New Arts Center as volunteers for events such as community culture days, and the upcoming indigenous people’s day.
