Heavy Materials is parterning this year with the V.I. Children’s Museum (VICM) to present the 2024 USVI Youth Art Month (YAM) to the community.
The 2024 YAM exhibition can be viewed on St. Croix from March 23 until April 26 at CHANT in Frederiksted. The student exhibition will open at the VICM on St. Thomas on Friday from 6-8 p.m.
YAM is a nationwide celebration of children’s passions and talents in the arts, music, poetry, dance and visual arts. The USVI has celebrated YAM since 2006 thanks to Niarus Walker, co-chair of the YAM Regional Committee, a teacher, artist, and art advocate, according to the press release.
Walker brought the celebration to the territory to help create spaces where the community can highlight and enjoy the creativity of V.I. children while exploring their own cultural traditions. Last year, more than 400 students from over 25 schools and homeschool programs on St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix participated in the 2023 Youth Art Month exhibition, the press release stated.
“Heavy Materials is proud to partner with the VICM to support Youth Art Month. We believe engagement in the arts fosters creativity and strengthens the development of children socially and educationally,” Todd Jackson, Heavy Materials regional general manager, said.
“The Arts are one of our core concepts at the VICM and we are always pleased to provide a space to celebrate the artistic talents of our young people and to encourage more support of youth art in the territory. There are currently 5 Elementary schools in St. Thomas alone without an art teacher or art program. This makes the involvement of parents and the “village” that much more important. The VICM is happy to play our part in supporting teachers and galvanizing support for our children and their dreams,” said Amber McCammon, VICM executive director of Facilities and Programs. “Thank you so much to Maria Stiles, co-chair of the Youth Art Month Regional Committee, for her commitment to the youth of the Virgin Islands and for being the glue that connects our territory-wide celebration.”
YAM is also a time to celebrate the amazing art teachers and art advocates who continue to inspire future V.I. artists, the release stated.
“This year, I wanted to switch up our YAM program a bit. We had lots of interest last year to purchase the art, so the student artists being displayed in the museum have agreed to sell their artwork, not only for themselves but to benefit the V.I. Children’s Museum, as a portion of sales will be donated to the VICM. The time also felt ripe to expand the conversation beyond the museum, to speak to the people doing the work within the art community and discuss how we can do a better job of engaging our youth using the Arts. We held an inter-island Panel Discussion in which teachers, artists and cultural leaders told their stories and shared their hopes for the Arts in education for the purposes of finding solutions. We were honored to have one of our homegrown celebrities, DJ Benny Demus, join us as well. These professionals took three hours out of their night for the love of our community and Virgin Islands youth. For that, I will always be grateful,” said Chantel Hoheb, VICM executive director of Operations and Development.
“Thanks to the support from our sponsors, we were also able to create a YAM USVI Celebration Guide to encourage more educators and parents to expand the recognition and advocacy for youth arts,” Hoheb said.
“The experience of creating art, preparing it for display and selling it, is so important for our more advanced art students looking to make a career out of their talents”, stated Amy Gibbs, artist and owner of the Art Explorium in Tillet Gardens, St. Thomas.
81C also got in on the Youth Art Month fun this year! They created a “Kids Art Day” on Sunday, March 24th, during which various artists demonstrated different forms of art to help children find what interests them. Kids Art Day took place in downtown Charlotte Amalie at the 81C gallery, according to the release.
For more information, videos and links to resources, please visit the VICM official website.
Be sure to like and follow the Youth Art Month USVI page on Facebook for art highlights and updates.
