Teen Art Project: Community Public Art & Murals

Meets weekly on Wednesdays and Fridays for 8 weeks // Ages 13 to 18 (high school students, rising freshman and 2021 graduates included!)

This 8-week arts and leadership summer program will foster community conversation and connection while enabling young people to find their civic voice. 

Teens will work closely with resident artist, Janaina Vieira-Marques, to develop new art and design techniques while collaborating on large banner murals to hang on the exterior of MAM and surrounding buildings.

The murals will address the question: What is freedom? This project will foster civic engagement with: How to get your voice heard in a civic way? Students will reflect on their rights in relation to responsibility while addressing land, rivers, water, and the natural environment in which they live, including American Indian perspectives. Students will connect with the art of museum exhibitions based on themes in the Extraction exhibitions at the museum.

Teens will get hands-on experience preparing and installing an exhibition of their art, sketches, and designs at MAM and in one of the outdoor display bays at Allez! on the south end of Higgins in downtown Missoula.

TAP is generously supported by the Adventure Cycling Association, the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation, the Missoula Downtown Foundation (a partner organization of the Downtown Missoula Partnership), and the Montana Arts Council.

Click here to watch videos of each participant answering the question "What is freedom to you?"