Youth Programs
We believe that youth are not just the museum audiences of the future but also the Museum audiences of today. We practice this by offering a multitude of pathways for young people and families to enter the Museum and take up space with their acts of creative exploration and expression. For the seventh year in a row, MOCAD is proud to announce that 100% of Teen Council Members have graduated from high school and are college-bound, with 96% attending the college of their first choice.
MOCAD dedicates itself to long-term youth transformation and development through its programming. Most of all, we help get our youth to college and excited about being leaders in creating a more civic-minded world.
TEEN COUNCIL
The MOCAD Teen Council is a select group of young creatives from around Metro Detroit, ages 13-18, who meet weekly to propose, plan, and produce events for their peers. Our members are passionate about the arts and their power to question conventional thinking and norms. Youth are naturally curious and often search for a place to exercise their curiosity to make sense of the world around them.
Teen Council is a place to do just that, with support from caring adults, our funders, and supporters who step back to let youth lead while holding the programmatic structure they need to succeed. They work together to develop agreements and practice new ways of decision-making that give space to every voice at the table. They take on program planning, proposing ideas, organizing themselves into working groups, defining roles and timelines, and hosting their events. They reflect and assess each event, learning as they go to shape stronger and stronger events and programs for their peers.
For their individual growth, Teen Council members also receive support through resume development, college tours, museum and gallery visits, cultural field trips, teen-focused exhibitions, career development, portfolio development, expanded networks, inspiration, positive adult mentoring, and much more.
WATCH: 2018 Teen Council
WATCH: 2018 Detroit Hip Hop Architecture Camp
WATCH: 2017 Teen Council
WATCH: D-Artist Studio with Scott Hocking
WATCH: D-Artist Studio with Tiff Massey
CONTACT
For more information about the MOCAD Teen Council, please contact Curator of Youth Programs, Crystal Palmer at cpalmer@mocadetroit.org or call 313.832.6622. Or, you can learn more about our youth programs in the Youth Programs Brochure.
Youth tour of the exhibition KAWS: ALONE AGAIN at MOCAD, 2019, Photo: MOCAD
Youth participant in the KAWS EFFECTS: Character Design Summer Camp at MOCAD, 2019, Photo: MOCAD
Portraits of the 2018-19 Teen Council cohort, Photo: MOCAD
Teen fashion design workshop, organized by MOCAD’s Teen Council and hosted at Wayne State University, 2019, Photo: MOCAD
YOUTH EVENTS
FUNDERS/DONORS
MOCAD youth programs are supported by the Applebaum Family Compass Fund, Avalon International Breads, the Mandell and Madeleine Berman Foundation, the Edith S. Briskin/Shirley K. Schlafer Foundation, the Vera and Joseph Dresner Foundation, Harmony Garden, Heart of Neiman Marcus, the MGM Resorts Foundation, and the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.