Peer-reviewed article
We're Mutually Helping Each Other Out: Intergenerational Learning Between Adult Artists and Teen Participants Through a BIPOC , Community‐Centred Arts Programme
Feifei Shen, Clifford H. Lee ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This study looks at a community-based art summer programme for multilingual Black, Indigenous and other youth of colour (BIPOC) in Oakland, California. High school youth and adult teaching artists worked together to make public art installations for community spaces. The researchers used embedded ethnography, interviews and surveys to see what each group learned. They report that youth built artistic and work-related skills, newcomer youth practised English, and participants strengthened civic engagement and cultural identity. Adult artists also learned from the youth.
Key points
- Youth developed technical artistic and professional workforce competencies through hands-on mentorship.
- Newcomer youth practised English organically through low-stakes collaborative art-making.
- Participants deepened civic engagement and cultural identity by linking personal immigrant experiences to local place-based histories.
- Learning flowed in both directions, as adult artists deepened their facilitation, leadership and community-engaged practices.
- Working together disrupted traditional power dynamics between adults and youth.
Limitations
Only the abstract is available, so sample size, how outcomes were measured and the strength of the findings are unknown. It is a qualitative study of one programme in one city, with no comparison group, so it cannot show that the programme caused the outcomes or that results would apply elsewhere.
Abstract
Abstract This study examines intergenerational learning within a community‐based art education (CBAE) summer programme serving multilingual BIPOC youth in Oakland, California. Using embedded ethnography, semi‐structured interviews and surveys, we investigated how high school youth and adult teaching artists co‐created public art installations for community spaces. Grounded in communities of practice, culturally sustaining pedagogy and constructionism, findings reveal three interconnected outcomes: first, youth developed technical artistic and professional workforce competencies through hands‐on mentorship; second, newcomer youth practised English organically through low‐stakes collaborative art‐making; and third, participants deepened civic engagement and cultural identity by connecting personal immigrant experiences to local place‐based histories. This learning flowed in both directions, disrupting traditional power dynamics as adult artists also deepened their facilitation, leadership and community‐engaged practices through working alongside youth. This study contributes to CBAE by demonstrating how reciprocal intergenerational public art‐making creates unique conditions that bring together skill development, language practice, civic engagement and workforce readiness within BIPOC communities.