Ruckusroots

The Rebel Garden Project: an internship style class for systems impacted youth in South LA. The program reached 29 youth over 2 semesters for 45 hours of direct, on-site entrepreneurial training in creative arts skills, project management as related to urban gardening. The program supported local experts, who led 21 sessions in key program areas. Interns designed a logo, flyers, stickers, t-shirts and a banner as a part of this program. Program evaluations revealed a 25% increase in entrepreneurial skills.

Public Art Apprenticeship - In 10 sessions over the summer of 2023, 8 high school student interns learned from local artist Nino Alicea about the process of creating a large public sculpture out of reclaimed materials. Students participated in painting, cleaning and refurbishing reclaimed metal that was used to create Atabey, the 20-foot tall sculpture which later appeared at Burning Man Arts Festival 2023. Students also created journals in which they reflected about their learnings in the apprenticeship. Evaluations of this program revealed: 20 percent increase in confidence in working on a large-scale artwork, 24 percent increase in confidence in digital design and planning and a 22 percent increase in project management and documentation.

Wild Art at Glenfeliz Elementary. This series of 12 classes reached over 100 TK - 1st grade youth and resulted in the creation of a collaborative art piece made from recycled materials and trash items. Students were led by a local artist in turning nearly 7lbs of cardboard and 100 single use plastic bags into a 4' x 4' collaged mural called "Protect Our Oceans." Students learned about wildlife featured in the piece while also learning arts skills like painting, color theory and creative reuse. Program evaluations revealed a 23 percent increase in confidence creating art, a 38 percent increase in knowledge about environmental concepts like wildlife and recycling and a 61 percent increase in confidence in artistic creative reuse techniques.

Other programs included various public arts workshops and programming and restoration of the Friendship Garden at Eucalyptus Elementary school into an educational art-making space. Expenses include $3075 in supplies and $12025 in vendor services, $1300 in teachign artist fees for public workshops and $13700 in staff salaries in support of implementing these programs.