For the first time ever, New Museum Los Gatos (NUMU) has launched an ArtNow Teen Council composed of 6 high school interns who are helping to elevate the ArtNow program to be more widely accessible and more relevant to teenagers living across Santa Clara County. Through establishing the ArtNow Teen Council, NUMU hopes to build a stronger partnership with student artists so that they aren’t just the recipients of the ArtNow program, but the architects. The dream is to establish this internship as a key feature of the ArtNow program. We received over 33 applications to the internship this summer, and we look forward to being able to offer more professional development opportunities to teens across the County in the months and years to come. This blog features our first ever 6 ArtNow Teen Council Members, representing different schools across the county, and gives a peek into what they’ve done so far, and what they are working on currently.
“We’ve been dreaming about establishing the ArtNow Teen Council for over a year, and it’s been an absolute blast to help it come to life. Our Teen Council Members are so thoughtful, creative and passionate about art. Their input helped elevate our Theme selection process, and guided us to a Theme that the NUMU ArtNow team wouldn’t have come up with on their own. I’m so excited for what’s to come!”
-Michèle Jubilee, NUMU’s Education Curator
As we enter the 12th year of the ArtNow program, the Teen Council was tasked with helping NUMU determine the artistic theme for ArtNow 2023 under the mentorship of NUMU’s Education Curator Michèle Jubilee and our past ArtNow 2021 “Best in Show” winner, NUMU intern Toby Britton.
All 6 Teen Council Members each presented 3 unique theme ideas with supporting quotes
They met with NUMU’s Education Curator and intern Toby Britton to discuss their ideas and discover similarities
The teens synthesized their ideas into 3 clear 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice options which were presented to the NUMU ArtNow staff team (Executive Director Ami Davis, Deputy Director Kimberly Snyder, Exhibitions + Collections Manager Cristiano Colantoni, Art Curator Julie Ericsson, Education Curator Michèle Jubilee)
The NUMU team added ideas to the Teen Council’s 1st choice Theme option and brainstormed more Title options
Michèle Jubilee and Toby Britton drafted the ArtNow Theme description
The ArtNow Teen Council, Toby Britton, and the NUMU staff team met all together to finalize the Theme Unarmed Truth
What’s next for the ArtNow Teen Council? They are working on creating a special toolkit designed to help students and teachers reflect on the theme Unarmed Truth.
The ArtNow Teen Council and the NUMU ArtNow Team meeting virtually to finalize the ArtNow 2023 Theme.
NUMU and our ArtNow Teen Council are excited to offer a new ArtNow Toolkit, built to help encourage creativity in the classroom and spark inspiration for ArtNow submissions, showing artistic examples for each of the 8 medium categories that explore either personal or universal truths. We hope this toolkit helps you explore the theme Unarmed Truth in a meaningful way as you prepare to submit to ArtNow 2023!
Posted by Michèle Jubilee, NUMU’s Education Curator
