The annual exhibition celebrates new paintings, drawings, photography, ceramics, prints, animation, and multimedia work demonstrated by young adult artists participating in Hyde Park Art Center’s Teen programs. Throughout the 30-week program, teens cultivate their creative voices under the guidance of professional artists. The exhibition is a testament to these young artists’ evolution and dedication, who have taken on the challenge of expressing perplexed thoughts, feelings, and emotions into individual works of art.
Unanimously titled A Universe of Self-Experience by The Youth Board of Artists (a dedicated cohort of teen leaders at Hyde Park Art Center), the exhibition audaciously recognizes the boundlessness and complexity within the time in which these young artists exist. Through a diverse range of media and styles, more than 40 artists investigate the intertwined vastness and intimate side of self-experience. Some teens connect their work to the shared awareness of the universal human experience, tapping into the social currents that are echoing within their close communities. While other teens reveal the intricacies of their introspective, deeply personal inner universe. The collection of work contemplates the myriad ways everyone perceives, experiences, and discovers their own world.
The Art Center’s Teen programs provide a structured independence that encourages young artists to develop their creative voices, learn new skills, and build relationships in the context of a community art center, where artists of all ages and backgrounds do the same. The 2023 program consisted of eight courses: Youth Board of Artists, Teen Ceramics, Digital Illustration With Purdue University, Artshop, Advanced Teen Track, Teen Photo 2D Exploration, Advanced Photo Portfolio, and Music PROduction with ISPRO.
The exhibition was organized as a collaboration between the Youth Board of Artists, Alex Herrera, Teen Programs Manager, Harley Reid, Teen Programs Coordinator, Vachanta Simms, Teen Programs Assistant, and Tran Tran, Exhibitions and Residency Coordinator, with guidance from Jeff Robinson, Art Center Preparator.
Top banner image: Still from Endlessly Connected, a short film by Chase Russell, participant of YBA and Teen Ceramics
Featured image on exhibitions page: Ollie Knox Witczak (participant of YBA and Advanced Teen Photo) , Luminous Lady – The Ominous Gas Station Project, 2023, Inkjet print, 24 x 17 inches.
