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What Is the Teen Bridge Program?
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 visual arts and woodworking 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 skills. They learn to work as art teaching assistants and connect with Boston artists and opportunities. Participants help shape the program.
Teen Bridge Applications will open for the 2026-2027 school year in June 2026.
If you have questions, please contact Teen Programs Manager Taína Vargas.
WHO SHOULD APPLY?
We are always looking for passionate, creative, driven young artists, especially those who have participated in the Eliot School's BPS School Partnership Program or who have limited access to arts programming. Currently, we’re looking for 8th, 9th, and 10th grade students.
Teen artists need to be available:
- Tuesdays and Wednesdays: 4:30 PM–6:30 PM (253 Amory Street)
- Thursdays: 4 PM–6 PM (24 Eliot Street)
- And be able to get to the Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts in Jamaica Plain
Other eligibility requirements:
- Be a resident of the City of Boston
- Be in grades 8, 9, or 10 in the 2024-2025 school year
- Be able to attend after-school programming consistently
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Teen artists will meet for open studio time after their school dismisses for the day, then attend structured programming between 4 PM–6:30 PM. Teen Bridge aims to allow participants to enhance fundamental art and woodworking skills, explore new mediums, practice professional art skills, take trips to visit local artists and exhibitions, and gain valuable art-based job skills. At the end of the school year, teens will put together a showcase of their work and participate in a year end celebration.
After completing the Teen Bridge program year all teens will have the opportunity to interview for a 7-week paid position as Art Teacher’s Assistants in the Eliot School’s Summer Program for Children or a 5-week paid intensive as Artist Assistants with our Artist in Residence.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
This program is free and we offer a $15 per hour stipend for participation.
Participants 14 years or older may be eligible to be paid hourly wages to participate in leadership opportunities, such as our Teen Leadership Council.
WHEN IS IT HAPPENING?
January 7, 2025–May 2025 (End Date TBD)
WHAT IS THE APPLICATION PROCESS?
The application process has two parts:
- This written application
- An interview with Eliot School staff and/or current Teen Bridge participants. It is strongly recommended to bring a portfolio or sketchbook to the interview.
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 2020's Virtual End of the Year Celebration
2020 Teen Bridge students were recognized for all their accomplishments during a live Zoom event. Teens presented their artwork, received awards, and gave their fellow friends well-deserved shout-outs.
