The Youth Arts Workshop (YAW) started in 1998 and is one of Asian Arts Initiative’s longest running programs. Since its inception, YAW continues to fulfill a growing need for safe, constructive out of school time (OST) space for middle school youth and provides an important environment to share cultural experiences and to create cross-cultural understanding among Philadelphia’s fast-growing Asian population and non-Asian youth through art-making.
Housed in our multi-tenanted arts facility, YAW provides year-round, summer and after-school programming for middle school students, offering creative development and a safe space for youth. We create art-making opportunities for students from all backgrounds to share their experiences to develop cross-cultural understanding and a sense of community.
At YAW, we want to create a safe space for young people to express themselves creatively. We strive to create an open environment for students to create powerful connections with peers and mentors from all backgrounds. YAW prioritizes community building over product by supporting teens in gaining a greater understanding of their own and each others' experiences, developing critical thinking skills through dialogue and storytelling, and finding ways to incorporate their experiences into their art while improving and gaining artistic skills.
