@ Studio One Art Center, The Center for ArtEsteem – Youth Art Exhibition

The Center for ArtEsteem presents our 27th Annual Exhibition: Lighting Our Future. The Exhibition is a one-day event that will take place on Saturday April 26th from 1:00-4:00pm at Studio One Art Center (365 45th Street, Oakland, CA 94609). Viewing available from Saturday April 26th through Sunday April 27th.

The Center for ArtEsteem (ArtEsteem) was founded in 1989 with the mission to empower individuals through art, creativity and education, making positive choices to break the cycle of violence for themselves and their communities. Our work is rooted in applying the Twelve Principles of Attitudinal Healing toward healing the wounds systemic injustice has carved into Bay Area communities. Through arts education programming, professional development workshops, the annual exhibition, public art murals, and community-based arts engagement, we cultivate personal, collective, and environmental awareness, wellness, leadership, and action.

A vital aspect of our work is youth cultivation through our school-based programming. Each school year, ArtEsteem engages 2,500 students with during and after-school programs that intertwine arts education, literacy, mental wellness, and leadership development. ArtEsteem programming improves and enriches students’ cultural and artistic knowledge, creativity, self-esteem, and social-emotional and critical thinking abilities, enhancing students’ knowledge and choices to help develop the whole child.

Since 1998, ArtEsteem classes have culminated in an annual exhibition. Students participate in a professional process as they finalize their work, write artist statements grounded in critical consciousness and self-reflection, and if they so choose, sell it to the public. They receive half the proceeds from the sale of their pieces, with the other half going back into ArtEsteem’s programs to fund a cycle of healing and arts learning.

We invite you to attend the Exhibition and journey through the minds of students from Bay Area schools as they use art to explore the world around them. See you on Saturday April 26th!