Youth Arts Collective
Do art. Be kind.
About Youth Arts Collective
What YAC is
YAC is a nonprofit, after school art studio and mentorship program for high school and college artists—brilliant and struggling, confident and fringe, multi-ethnic, multi-tempered, and over 30% financially challenged. They learn art, job, and life skills, and gain a healthy dose of self-esteem and gratitude along the way. YACsters learn to believe in themselves, take creative risk, and give back. 100% graduate from high school. 95% of YACsters go on to university, college, and art college—many on scholarships. YAC is an incubator for some of our community’s future creatives, whether they end up in the arts, education, business, or science. YAC provides supplies, studio space, art training, exhibition and commission opportunities, individual mentoring, and a community unlike any other. We’re open 4 hours a day, 6 days a week, year round.
Mission
Our mission is to inspire creativity, kindness, and confidence in our youth through artistic expression and mutual respect. Do art. Be kind.
Vision
YAC is a creative and social experiment that is clearly working. Our intention is to continue to grow and enrich our core program, while enhancing and engaging the surrounding community with a visual arts collective based on the courage and innovation of youth.
Equity & Inclusion
YAC provides a safe, creative space for YACsters and staff of all backgrounds, races, religions, disabilities, sexual orientations, and preferences. We continue to seek opportunities to further our commitment to safety and inclusion, honoring our differences where all feel welcome for who they are.
History
YAC was founded in 2000 by artists Marcia Perry and Meg Biddle. Since then, with the support of the community, a growing board, and a team of professional artists, they’ve individually mentored over 1,000 young artists in the Monterey Bay area.
Each artist is mentored in art, job, and life skills. They generate work from their own voice in a collective of peers, mentored by professional artists. YAC alumni have gone on to the arts, business, medicine, education, and journalism, knowing how to take risk. YAC is a life-changing (sometimes life saving) escort to their best creative selves. It’s also the most entertaining place to be in Monterey in the afternoons because YACsters don’t hold back in work or conversation.
“Today I was able to help several YACsters with questions about technique and composition…and another YACster with designing a series of little books,...directed another to a few artists’ sites for inspiration specific to their interests. Later I photographed art for their portfolios…while having general in-studio discussions with a bunch of them about current world events, spoke privately with one of them about their broken home life, another about their emotional struggle with self esteem, and celebrated with yet another about getting into the college of their choice, with scholarship. All in a day’s work.”