Summer Youth Art Cohorts combine studio-based arts learning with mentorship for aspiring artists ages 13-18. Students build artistic skills, gain confidence, and receive guidance from professional teaching artists to help them take the next steps toward future goals.
JOIN THE 2026 SUMMER COHORT!
Questions? Contact the Education Office at 510-620-5543 or email education@richmondartcenter.org
Funding for this program, including youth stipends, is generously provided by the Richmond Just Transition Field of Interest Fund at the East Bay Community Foundation.
SUMMER CLASSES 2026
Zines for Justice
Doom scrolling. Endless screen time. Chat vortexes. AI friends, art, and rising stars. Our digital realities are multidimensional realms offering gifts, struggles, and big questions about what lies ahead. Zines for Justice is a zine-making and storytelling workshop that invites participants to reflect on our entanglements with technology and its influence on our lives, relationships, and the world around us. Students will explore contemporary social justice movements and efforts to protect marginalized communities, the land, and natural resources, using these themes as inspiration for their visual and written creations.
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 3pm-5pm
Jul 7 – Jul 30 (8 sessions)
Teaching Artist: Shani Ealey
Location: Print Studio
Nature Prints and Zines
Step into the world of printmaking! Use a variety of techniques from block printing to cyanotype to create your own nature inspired masterpieces. Learn how to zine-bind and create low cost mini publications. Cohorts will use their new skills to develop and produce their own self-publsihed zine about the Environmental History of Richmond and Endangered species.
Thursdays & Fridays, 10am-1pm
Jun 18 – Jul 17 (10 sessions)
Teaching Artist: Viviana Martinez Carlos
Location: Glass Studio
Intro to Wearables
Jump into jewelry making! Take to the workbench to create your very own wearable pieces of art. Intro to Wearables gives a full scope experience of the jewelry making process from sawing, filing, stone setting, sanding, and polishing pieces. Students will be able to take home their own jewelry including a Byzantine chain, brooch and pendant.
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 11am-2pm
Jun 16 – Jul 28 (10 sessions)
Teaching Artist:
Rikki Smeltzer
Location: Metals Studio
