18 teen artists · 4 mentor-led tracks · Cedar Row
Deja is 15 and just finished her first screenprint run.
Cedar Row Youth Studio pairs teens with working local artists for a semester of real mentorship — painting, screenprinting, textiles, and photography — in a shared studio space that ends every term with a public gallery show.
Current Cohort
Six pieces from this semester, still up on the studio wall.
Deja, 15 · Screenprinting
Three-color run of a Cedar Row corner store sign, printed on scrap tote bags her mentor sourced from a closing boutique.
Marcus, 17 · Painting
A four-panel acrylic study of the block his grandmother's been on since 1988, painted from four different times of day.
Yuki, 14 · Textiles
A quilted wall hanging pieced from donated fabric scraps, first big project after two months of just learning to thread a machine.
Anthony, 16 · Photography
A 12-print black-and-white series of Cedar Row barbershops, shot on a donated film camera over six Saturdays.
Priya, 13 · Painting
Her first oil painting, a still life of her family's kitchen table set for Sunday dinner.
Nasir, 17 · Screenprinting
A hand-cut stencil poster for the spring gallery show, now the actual poster taped up around the neighborhood.
Mentor Matches
Four mentors, four crafts, eighteen teens.
- Deja, 15, screenprinting — matched with Nora Aldana, textile and print artist, 9 years teaching at Cedar Row
- Marcus & Priya, painting — matched with Gil Okafor, painter, three solo shows in the city since 2015
- Yuki, textiles — matched with Nora Aldana, shared track with Deja
- Anthony, photography — matched with Ruth Bellweather, documentary photographer, first mentor to join in 2017
- Nasir, screenprinting — matched with Nora Aldana, shared track with Deja
Gallery Shows
Every semester ends on the wall at the Foundry Street gallery, not a folder on a laptop.
The spring show runs two weekends at Foundry Street Arts Space — six new pieces, artist statements written by the teens themselves, and a reception where families meet the mentors. Past work also travels: three former students have had pieces included in the city’s teen art biennial.
“Nora didn’t just teach Deja how to pull a clean print. She taught her that a corner store sign was worth drawing in the first place.”
“I’ve mentored at three other programs. Cedar Row is the only one where the teens actually keep making work after the semester ends — Marcus is still painting that block a year later.”
Support a Kit
$40 covers one teen’s supply kit for a semester.
A supply kit is specific to the craft — screenprinting mesh and emulsion, oil paints and stretched canvas, a fat quarter bundle and machine needles, or a roll of black-and-white film and darkroom chemistry. We buy in bulk per track, not per student, so $40 reliably covers one teen’s share.
$40
One teen’s semester supply kit
$150
One mentor’s stipend for a month of sessions
$600
Sponsors the spring gallery show