A new creative hub for Boston youth has opened its doors in the Fenway. ARCK Boston, the Art Resource Collaborative for Kids, has moved into a space at 109 Brookline Avenue designed to give young people hands-on opportunities to explore art, entrepreneurship and social emotional learning outside of traditional classrooms.
The new lab marks a shift for the nonprofit, which for years primarily delivered programming inside schools. Now, with a dedicated space of its own, ARCK aims to create what founder and CEO Sara Mraish-Demeter describes as “a space where you can invite teenagers to come as a hub, be themselves, come up with their own ideas, think about who they are, their purpose, their community and, ultimately, socially innovate.”
Read this story at The Boston Guardian as a PDF.
ARCK celebrated the new space with a public ribbon cutting on April 16, co-hosted by the Boston Red Sox, with local officials and community partners.
The Creativity Lab will host structured programs, including after school sessions, summer cohorts and paid internships for teens. Students in the after school programming work on capstone projects, often centered on the intersection of creativity and business.
On one Thursday afternoon, a small group of students in the Creativity Lab sketched an arrangement of tomatoes, jalapenos, onions and cilantro, paying careful attention to the shading of the vegetables from their unique perspective. ARCK doesn’t teach theory or technique, but process and intentionality.
Following the exercise, they enjoyed a fresh salsa while students met with their one-on-one mentors to discuss their capstones.
A particularly proud student showed off the logo she made for her friend’s baking business, a gentle pastel cherry blossom pattern that brings red velvet to the tip of the tongue. She said that ARCK showed her that creativity can be more than a hobby. it can open doors to the future.
Students will present their projects at a May 15 showcase, open to the public.
“When you’re doing a business, you need to learn how to observe how people use your service, how they might eat your cookie. Attention to details, that’s the practice.” Mraish-Demeter said. “We’re not teaching art for art’s sake. It’s about the process. A lot of our framework is actually built on trauma-informed teaching.”
The new space in the Fenway will allow ARCK to build longer term relationships with students and families, something that was more difficult under the previous model where the organization was limited by the time it spent in school classrooms.
With the new Creativity Lab as a home base, ARCK is looking forward to a future where it can expand its footprint in the community. Residents can volunteer as mentors, attend public painting events and speaker series, or support the nonprofit through donations. Families interested in enrolling their children can apply through ARCK’s website for a variety of programs. Applications for the summer program are open now for children ages 12 to 18. Summer studio sessions cover subjects from climate change to AI literacy and more. The organization uses a sliding scale financial aid model for attendees that looks to build a mixed socioeconomic environment.
Mraish-Demter encouraged curious community members to stop by and visit the space, envisioning the Creativity Lab as a communal support system for students.