Artists for Humanity is empowering Boston youth through art

On this week’s Joy Beat, we’re celebrating what happens when creativity and purpose intersect.

In the heart of Boston, the nonprofit Artists for Humanity is paving the way for the next generation of artists. They give talented teens — most of whom are people of color from low-income communities — the opportunity to earn and create. 

Through murals, sculptures and more, Artists for Humanity is helping young people bridge passion and profession. It brings joy, beauty and a sense of belonging to their community. And, by paying its artists, they’re addressing economic inequities as well.

Anna Yu, the executive director, and Jason Talbot, co-founder and managing director of program, joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath to discuss the decadeslong history of the nonprofit and its mission. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.

Arun Rath: Artists for Humanity was founded back in 1991. Messes with my head — that’s 33 years ago. Jason, can you start off and tell us how it came to be?

Jason Talbot: Yeah. Well, you know, back in 1991, they had just defunded art in schools. I was a Boston Public School student at the Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, and our former executive director, Susan Rodgerson, came to the King School to reintroduce art in the best way that she could.

We started working together. I found her willingness to hear out my ideas and implement them in projects was super refreshing. We continued to work together with the other fellow co-founder, Rob Gibbs, in a studio over in SoWa.

There were just us six boys in that studio, and we painted and we created a gallery exhibition. It just showed us the capabilities of art, it helped us understand this artist community and we just loved doing work there.

You know, our organization has evolved over the years. We’ve built in this entrepreneurial aspect where we’re producing and selling art to clients. It’s just been an extremely enriching experience for me, but also [for] all the thousands of AFH alumni that are now currently [or] have been enriched by the AFH program.

Rath: Anna, tell us about that enrichment. How has the organization evolved since that?

Anna Yu: Well, thanks for that question. I think one of the things I would say about Artists for Humanity is that, over 33 years, it’s really gotten even larger than it was before.

While the core of the model is essentially the same — meaning this radical idea of paying teens to create client project work that is of the quality of a professional — that piece is always running through our work. But today, we are the largest employer of youth in the city of Boston, which is over 400 teens that we employ.

One of the big changes that has happened is that we not only provide after-school employment, we also partner with schools during the school day in a program we call Co-Lab. So that was one way for us to think about: How could we have an even greater impact? How could we be maximizing the capacity of our team? And how can we be supporting a real need within schools, post-pandemic, where art and design is often not necessarily a priority?

Rath: What are some of the success stories? What does success look like?

Talbot: They just start to have accomplishments, and they start to really appreciate the input. They begin to flourish.

Teenagers — one thing that’s pretty universal is they really are looking for adult experiences, you know? So to be in the workplace, to be respected, to be able to attend meetings, to be able to propose ideas, it really gets our young people super excited about having a career and really re-invested in their education.

And teens are graduating at a higher rate; AFH graduates 100% of our high school students, and we’re able to offer secondary education to 100% of our teen artists. It’s really building up these young people in a way that is catered to them and that they truly appreciate. I think it’s a great environment.

Rath: The organization is not only nurturing creativity but there’s this emphasis on entrepreneurship. Tell us about the business side of this. How do you get these young artists paid?

Yu: Something that is so radical about the organization — it’s hard to believe that Artists for Humanity has been doing this for 33 years — is that clients actually hire us to create work for them. So it’s often beautifying office spaces, it’s creating a unique or custom piece of art for them, it can even be branding and promotional materials, it could be a website.

The beautiful thing is they are paying teens to do this work, and they are valuing their voices, their creativity. And they’re getting a very unique product at the end of the day. Especially when you think about clients who may want to be reaching more diverse audiences, there’s no one better to create that work than our youth designers and artists.

Rath: Talk about the collaborative process between these young artists and the professionals.

Talbot: Well, AFH is a tremendously collaborative organization, and it ends up being this really cylindrical system where everybody’s kind of being enriched by the environment. It’s kind of why we find this creative career path so great is that, you know: when you make art, it really gives back. It’s really an enjoyable experience. It helps our teens envision a career that isn’t drudgery, and that can really enrich their lives.

And I think our clients really get visionary work. Our teens are up on the latest trends. They’re digital natives — they know what’s going on — and they’re really able to help our clients have some really great new innovative ideas. So I think it’s rewarding for everybody who gets involved in a project with Artists for Humanity.

Rath: So, it’s been 33 years [since AFH’s founding]. You’ve seen so many go on to become adults and blossom in amazing ways. Are there any moments of joy you’d like to share?

Talbot: Geez. I mean, well, it just feels like for young people to have the opportunity to contribute to a world-class city like Boston is just kind of a magical thing. The fact that we get to do it as a job, as a career, is just absolutely tremendous.

[There are] just so many successful artists and creatives that are able to dream things into existence, and I think that’s the way to live. We’re encouraging young people to do that.

Yu: The beautiful thing about Artists for Humanity is that a lot of our alumni are actually not just artists. Many of them do become artists. Many of them actually pursue a career in STEM, or some of them go on to become lawyers. We have [one] who’s actually on our board of advisors right now, and she’s a lawyer at the Fed, so that’s pretty amazing.

We have someone who is an alumni from AFH and is at Harvard Medical School. So it’s really this idea that by opening up these pathways, by inspiring them to think creatively, by building that confidence, they can really achieve anything.

It doesn’t have to be in the world of art and design; it can also be just building that confidence so that they have that opportunity to explore other fields, whether it be STEM or in humanities.

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