Summer Apprenticeship Program

Each year, Artspace brings New Haven public high school students into its galleries for three intensive weeks to work as apprentices with a Lead Artist. Since its inception in 2001, when Sol LeWitt served as the inaugural Lead Artist, Artspace’s Summer Apprenticeship Program has given nearly 400 New Haven Public High School students the opportunity to conceive, create and mount their very own gallery show, learn about contemporary studio art practices, delve deeply into the Lead artists artistic strategies and methods, and build self-esteem while making a collective project relevant to their own lives. Students from across the school district meet one another for the first time, explore their cultural identities, and develop skills that will help them achieve their career and educational dreams.  Over the past few years, Lead artists have included Nona Faustine, Titus Kaphar, Roberto Lugo, and Wardell Milan.  SAP will turn 20 in 2020.

Past Programs

  • SAP 2020: Youth Justice Design Collaborative

    New Haven Public School Students worked with Lead Artist, Daniel Pizarro, to learn how art can be utilized as a tool for activism, organizing, and storytelling. 

  • SAP 2019: The Sound We See: A New Haven City Symphony

    Twenty-two local teens, each enrolled in one of New Haven’s Public High Schools together produced a 24-minute film that envisions a summer day in the life of New Haven They worked together alongside Los Angeles based filmmakers Paolo Davanzo and Lisa Marr for three weeks in July 2019. 

  • SAP 2018: Paying Homage: Soil and Site

    In 2018, 19 students joined forces with activist potter/spoken word poet Roberto Lugo to pay homage to unsung heroes of our community and tell the untold stories about their contributions.

  • SAP 2017: Masturbatory Delusions

    Artspace is pleased to announce our 17th annual Summer Apprenticeship Program and its affiliated exhibition Masturbatory Delusions.  This program aims to give a group of New Haven public high school students the opportunity to work alongside Lead Artist Nona Faustine. Over three weeks in July, the apprentices studied Faustine’s technique, process, and set of historical influences. They produced photographs that emulate her style, interest in self-portraiture, and questions relating to site, invisibility, and power.

  • SAP 2016: Stages of Kingdom and Exile

    with lead artist Wardell Milan July 5-22, 2016 For New Haven Public High School Students Do you ever feel like life is a series of performances, or a race for stereotypical perfection?Have you performed a fictitious version of yourself to satisfy the expectations of friends, family and even sometimes strangers? This program is for anyone […]

  • SAP 2015: The Jerome Project

    A companion exhibition to Arresting Patterns displays the work of 18 high school students from the New Haven Public School district who collaborated with Titus Kaphar and theater artists Aaron Jafferis and Dexter Singleton.  The students used Kaphar’s trademark materials–tar paper, chalk, and mixed media–to create their own portraits of individuals unjustly sentenced and incarcerated. […]

  • SAP 2014: Mobile Museum of American Artifacts

    Each year, Artspace brings 15-18 New Haven high school students into its galleries for three weeks to work as apprentices with a Master Artist. This year’s project, The Mobile Museum of American Artifacts, is an evolving collection of personal objects and their histories. Housed in a trailer that is traveling across the country, and in […]

  • SAP 2013: Pop & Op

    Each summer Artspace seeks out an artist and a group of New Haven high schools students to work together in the spirit of collaboration. Over the course of three weeks this group coalesces into a creative unit, learning new artistic skills and completing an intricate installation in the Artspace galleries. The project seeks to provide […]

  • SAP 2012: Occupy Main Street

    Each summer Artspace seeks out an artist and a group of New Haven high school students to work together in the spirit of collaboration. Over the course of three weeks this group coalesces into a creative unit, learning new art skills and completing an intricate installation in the Artspace galleries. The project looks to provide […]

  • SAP 2011: Trellised Benches

    Each summer Artspace is faced with the task of finding artists and a group of high school students to work together in the spirit of collaboration. In just three short weeks this group gets to know each other, learns new art making skills, and completes an intricate installation in the Artspace Galleries and The Lot. […]

  • SAP 2010:

    Each summer Artspace is faced with the task of finding one artist and a group of high school students to work together in the spirit of collaboration. In justthree short weeks this group gets to know each other, learns new art-making skills, and completes an intricate installation in the Artspace galleries. The goal of the project is to […]

  • SAP 2009: Babel Collections

    Artspace’s Summer Apprenticeship Program brings together twelve talented public high school students and a local artist for a month in the summer to create an art installation.  This summer the students will join with Brooklyn based sculptor Carolyn Salas to craft a series of totem pole structures for The Lot, a public display space located on Orange […]