On January 18, 2020, [x]space arts hub resident artist KB held a free painting workshop as part of Youth Art Exchange’s EPA: Excelsior Public Art quarterly event. More than 20 people, including families and children, came to learn how to paint at our meat market-turned-arts space at Mission and Geneva – one mother and child even traveled from San Jose for the workshop! Photos by Xavier Brockman.

Photos from the opening of our Spring 2019 Exhibition: Belonging. Youth Art Exchange spring 2019 students, family, friends, and YAX community gathered at [x]space arts hub on May 3, 2019. Work was showcased by Spring 2019 YAX students of all disciplines: Architecture Firm, Industrial + Product Design, Black + White Photography, Fashion Design, Filmmaking, Music Production, and Printmaking classes. Students sold their work, there was a live block printing activity, and we celebrated the end of another successful YAX program!

Photos and videos from the second annual Youth Digital Music Festival at [x]space arts hub on May 3, 2019.

Youth Art Exchange brought together young musicians from across the San Francisco Bay Area for the second annual YDM: Youth Digital Music Festival at [x]space arts hub.

YDM is a showcase featuring live performances, DJ sets, original music from Bay Area youth musicians, and a raffle for an Ableton Live Standard license. Built to be inclusive, YDM stands alone as a youth-led music festival now in its second year. It is a unique opportunity for young musicians to showcase work in front of a supportive audience of peers and music professionals. Youth from multiple organizations in the Bay Area come to network and collaborate as they transition into possible careers in multimedia and the arts.

Performers included The DJ Project, Today’s Future Sound, Xanubis, Last Minute Entertainment, and Youth Art Exchange music production students. Bay Area luminaries speaking at YDM included DJ/Producer Ray Reck and KQED Arts editor Nastia Voynovskaya.

YDM is presented by Youth Art Exchange and supported by the Youth Empowerment Fund and Ableton.

KQED music editor Nastia Voynovskaya visited YAX to write about our creation and transformation of [x]space. The article, Sealed for 10 Years, an Excelsior Butcher Shop Becomes a Vibrant Teen Art Space, showcases how we created a “vital space for diverse student artists”. The piece shares the importance of this type of space in San Francisco and its importance to youth. It was also picked up as a feature in the New York Times California Today newsletter. We want to emphasize that we couldn’t do this work without support from the YAX philanthropic community. Donate to keep our work going and come see it in person at ArtMart. 

On an overcast August afternoon, [x]space is bustling with dozens of teenagers, parents and neighbors eager to see summertime work by Youth Art Exchange students. A group of girls hawk screen-printed, hand-dyed patches and tote bags with slogans like "Melt I.C.E.!" Succulents in handmade planters hang from wooden "living walls" built by students themselves. At one point, kids beeline to the music studio in the back, where videos they recorded and edited screen in surround sound and high definition.

The neon pink meat hooks hanging above the music studio are the only evidence that just a year ago, this vibrant Excelsior art space was a derelict butcher shop that had been abruptly sealed shut and left as-is for 10 years.

On August 1, we celebrated our Summer Exhibition: Growth at [x]space which showcased the work by all our summer intensive students from: ArtBUILD (architecture + fashion design for rising 9th graders), Filmmaking, Music Production, and Printmaking. Below are photos from the exhibition as well as from throughout the summer! Thank you to all our amazing summer youth artists! You can see more from this summer on our Instagram.

Our ArtBUILD students built living walls, thanks Flora Grubb Gardens for donating the plants!

Bay Area LGBTQ Youth - Submit your art by June 20 to Be Seen: Bay Area LGBTQ Youth Art Show!

Youth Art Exchange (YAX) is looking for submissions of art made by Bay Area LGBTQ youth! YAX is celebrating LGBTQ Pride with Be Seen: Bay Area LGBTQ Youth Art Show at [x]space arts hub in the Excelsior in June. Be Seen will be a space for LGBTQ-identifying youth under 25 years old to show their artwork and be seen, appreciated, and celebrated. It is a space especially for LGBTQ youth whose experiences and identities are marginalized and underrepresented, such as youth of color, girls, first generation youth, low-income youth, and youth experiencing homelessness.

If you’re interested in showing your work (in any medium - visual, audio, video, 3D, performance, written, etc), email Chantelle at chantelle@youthartexchange.org. Artwork must be submitted at [x]space (5137 Mission St) by June 20.

Photos by KB from the opening of our community art show (415) Public Gallery at [x]space on April 6, 2019. Read more about the show here.