Written by ARTogether

For immigrant, refugee, and newcomer youth, adjusting to a new community can mean navigating unfamiliar languages and cultures while trying to find connection, confidence, and a sense of belonging.

We’ve seen what can happen when young people have opportunities to build relationships, develop their creative skills, and move into new educational, professional, and leadership experiences.

After participating in Shadow Movements, youth artist Sofia became an outreach representative for ARTogether at a local cultural festival. She led art activities, connected with community members, and provided translation. It was her first paid job in her new country and helped build her confidence as a leader.

Stories like Sofia’s show what is possible when an arts program becomes the beginning of a continuum from creative expression and belonging to leadership, education, professional experience, and future opportunities.

More Than a Place to Make Art

ARTogether’s youth programs are built around a simple idea that young people should have creative spaces where their cultures, languages, experiences, and stories are valued.

Our Summer Art Camps give children from immigrant and refugee families a welcoming space to explore their creativity. Through school-based programs, newcomer students connect learning, culture, and self-expression through art. Shadow Movements gives teens opportunities to explore identity, migration, and belonging through writing, shadow puppetry, voice recording, and animation.

Across our youth programming, multilingual support, culturally relevant activities, and teaching artists and educators who understand or share participants’ languages and cultures help make these spaces accessible.

But access is only the beginning. Through artmaking, youth can become agents of their own narratives, generate meaning from their experiences, and contribute their perspectives to larger cultural narratives.

Art Opens the Door to Belonging

Creative expression can give young people a way to communicate when words are difficult to find. A story can become a poem. An experience can become a painting. A memory can become a puppet or an animation. Through the creative process, youth can explore identity, mental health, healing, cultural pride, and what it means to find home in a new place.

Just as importantly, they do it together.

In Shadow Movements, youth work alongside professional artists to develop personal narratives and transform them into short films. Collaboration brings participants together across cultures and languages, helping them learn from one another.

As participant Shao Yun shared:

“We can talk to each other and learn English and learn about cultures from different countries.”

Across ARTogether’s work, 100% of participants surveyed reported a greater sense of belonging, healing, or inspiration, and 100% said programs helped reduce isolation and build community.

Finding a Place to Belong

For Sofia, that feeling of belonging became deeply personal. At a Shadow Movements event, she described meeting other immigrant students who, like her, wanted to use art to share their histories. Having a space where she could express herself without feeling judged helped her see her future differently.

“This space has helped me to realize that here I got a home and so I can continue pursuing something related to art,” she told the audience.

Now, she is preparing to attend college and pursue a degree in graphic design.

Her experience shows what can happen when young people feel safe enough to express themselves and supported enough to imagine what comes next.

From Connection to Opportunity

But staying connected is not only about remaining involved with ARTogether. We want young people to take the confidence, creativity, relationships, and skills they develop here and use them wherever their paths lead.

We are already seeing tangible outcomes. Four youth from our programs have been accepted to UC Berkeley through art-related applications or areas of focus. Shadow Movements alumni have gone on to college, with some citing the program in their applications as important to developing their sense of belonging and leadership. Alumni have also supported outreach, mural projects, festivals, and volunteer initiatives.

The impact can extend to families, too. Shadow Movements participant Alessandra brought her parents and siblings to the program’s culminating public event. After experiencing the welcoming atmosphere and Spanish translation, her family continued participating in ARTogether activities and events.

There is no single definition of what comes next. It may be college, an artistic career, a first job, greater confidence, stronger relationships across cultures, or returning as a leader to help welcome the next group of youth.

As resources allow, we hope to strengthen this continuum so more young people can move from creative expression and belonging to leadership, education, professional experience, and opportunities beyond ARTogether.

Our vision is bigger than any single program. It is about creating a community where art can open the door to wellness and belonging, where belonging can build confidence, and where that confidence can open doors far beyond ARTogether.

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