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Teen Bridge is an art program at the Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts for a dedicated group of teens who participate outside of school time in a year-round, multi-year program combining art education and experience, life skills, mentorship, job training, and employment.
Teens collaborate with each other and teaching artists to develop their artistic, personal and professional voice, and their skills. They learn to work as art teaching assistants and connect with Boston artists and opportunities. Participants help shape the program.
Currently, teens meet on Saturdays during the school year and participate in intensive art experiences during the summer, including summer employment and our annual Artist in Residence program, receiving stipends and wages.
Recruitment takes place every fall, with new teens joining each January and continuing throughout high school.
Eliot School Teen Bridge Applications are now live!
To apply click THIS LINK!
Please note, this is a competitive process, and you will be contacted for an interview. Selected applicants will start January 2022.
WHO SHOULD APPLY?
We are always looking for passionate, creative, driven young artists. Especially those who have participate in the Eliot School's BPS School Partnership Program. Currently we’re looking for 8th, 9th, and 10th grade students. Teen artists need to be available 11:30am-5:30pm on Saturdays and be able to get to the Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts Annex Space, located at 253 Amory St in Jamaica Plain.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Teen artists will meet together as a group at 11:30am to 5:30pm on Saturdays at the Eliot School to explore new art forms, practice professional art skills, take trips to visit local artists and art spots, and gain valuable art-based job skills.
At the end of the spring, teens will put together a showcase of their work for a year-end celebration.
After completing the Teen Bridge program, all teens will have the opportunity to interview for a 6-week paid position as Art Teacher’s Assistants in the Eliot School’s Summer Program for Children or a 4-week paid intensive as artist’s assistants with our artist in residence program.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
This program is free and the student receives a modest stipend.
WHEN IS IT HAPPENING?
11:30am-5:30pm every Saturday from January 8, 2022 - June 4, 2022 (No class on February 26)
Si prefiere recibir esta información en español, por favor contáctenos via correo electronico
Camila Bohan Insaurralde, Coordinadora de recursos juvenils
For questions, please contact Camila Bohan Insaurralde, Youth Engagement coordinator.
Empowering Youth through the Arts
Teen Bridge connects young people from our community-based programs to our schoolhouse and beyond.
A dedicated group of teens from our partner schools participate outside of school time in a year-round, multi-year program combining art education and experience, life skills, mentorship, job training, and employment.
Teens collaborate with each other and teaching artists to develop their artistic, personal and professional voice, and their skills. They learn to work as art teachers’ aides and connect with Boston artists and opportunities. Participants help shape the program.
Teens meet on Saturdays during the school year and participate in intensive art experiences during the summer, including summer employment and our annual Artist in Residence program, receiving stipends and wages.
Recruitment takes place every fall, with new teens joining each January and continuing throughout high school.
To apply or for additional information, please contact Alison Croney Moses.
The Eliot School’s Teen Bridge program is proudly supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, EdVestors, the Joe Kalt & Judy Gans Family Foundation, the Linde Family Foundation, New World Foundation, and the Plymouth Rock Foundation.
Follow Teen Bridge on Instagram
Teen Bridge Goes Behind the Scenes of the MFA Boston's Basquiat Exhibition
The current Teen Bridge cohort completed their fall 2020 semester. The young artists took on skill-building challenges to hone their formal art skills to complete mixed media and collage pieces for their portfolios.
Most recently, Curator of Contemporary art at the MFA Boston Liz Munsell, gave teen bridge students a virtual tour of the Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip Hop Generation and an inside look at how the exhibition came to be. Tanya Nixon Silberg co-founder of Little Uprisings and Wee the People, complemented the tour with a workshop on museums and cultural institutions, that posed the questions: Who are museums for? Who do they serve? And how can museums be more accessible?
To learn more and see their work, click here.
Watch InterGeneration Trailer
The documentary-in-progress that began in our 2020 Artist In Residence Teen Bridge Program with artist/filmmaker, Carolyn Shadid Lewis.
Watch Last Year's Virtual End of the Year Celebration
Saturday, June 20, 2020 4:30-5:30pm
Teen Bridge students were recognized for all their accomplishments this year during a live Zoom event. Teens presented their artwork, received awards, and gave their fellow friends well-deserved shout-outs.