Early College, Early Wins

CityLab students on a tour of MassArt with MassArt Professor Kyle Browne and AFH Foundation Studio Director Dominique Nelson to kick off the Design and Visual Communication College Pathway.

The average teenager is busy being a teenager—navigating the whirlwind of friendships, fun, challenges, self-discovery, and, of course, learning to eventually graduate high school. So it is remarkable for students to be fully engaged in earning college credit at the same time and even more unusual in the arts, as they do at CityLab Innovation High School. With college costs on a continual upward trend, graduating with college credits means not only graduating early, but saving upward of two years of college fees. That’s no small win. 

“It’s really a great opportunity, especially now with the cost of education and what it takes for students to try and get ahead, and stay out of the student debt bubble.” — Marc Holland, MassArt Department Chair and Professor of Studio Foundation

CityLab was founded by a group of teachers, students and administrators who sought to reimagine school and education. It exists to empower students through passion, pathways, motivation, and learning for all. When it opened its doors in 2022, a partnership with Artists for Humanity (AFH’s) Co-Lab was born under a common vision—to empower the next generation of young innovators. It was a perfect match for Co-Lab, a program that leverages AFH’s business model and creative studio access with schools during the day, all within AFH’s context of community engagement, youth leadership, and building equity. This led to an exploratory program for 9th graders in 2022, and the partnership has blossomed ever since. 

This year, CityLab and AFH Co-Lab launched a Design and Visual Communications College Pathway with MassArt, providing not only college credit, but workforce development, and the opportunity for employment in art and design to a cohort of CityLab juniors and seniors. CityLab Principal Dr. Stacey Mulligan, the driving force behind this partnership, shared, “This partnership exemplifies the power of collaboration in providing students from underrepresented communities with access to high-quality arts education—an opportunity they might not typically experience in secondary education.”

This is MassArt's first dual enrollment partnership with CityLab, coupled with the added value of partnering with Co-Lab. “AFH’s facility is amazing and makes this partnership possible, providing a vital and creative space for the program to thrive,” said Marc Holland, MassArt Department Chair and Professor of Studio Foundation. 

Katherine “Keo” Santos Garza is one of CityLab’s inaugural juniors enrolled in MassArt’s first year Foundational Course focused on visual language and form study. They are one of two CityLab students who also work in one of AFH’s creative studios after their day’s course work, alongside other Boston teen artists and designers. With the MassArt program being implemented at AFH, Keo is truly getting a full immersion into the world of art, design, and entrepreneurship. 

Keo has used art to cope with their surroundings since they were a child, and has been glued to their sketch book ever since. With this course collaboration, Keo is able to kick start their dreams to be a fashion designer, and that includes pushing the boundaries of their art, perspective, and materials.

CityLab student and AFH 3D Teen Designer Katherine “Keo” Santos Garza showcasing some studio practice work.

From pencil sketching to exclusive use of their favorite material gouache (a thicker texture than watercolor, with more solid coverage), they are now being pushed to work with acrylic, charcoal, and photography, create collages, and more. But more striking for them was being challenged to create abstract art by building upon the use of line, shape, shading, contrast, perspective, and composition in response to a creative brief. 

“A lot of us didn’t like abstract art, as most of us are representational artists…it made me appreciate abstract and contemporary art more. Abstract art gets a bad rep, so being challenged to do abstract [art], made me understand what it is, how to go about it, and respect it.” —Keo Santos Garza, CityLab student and AFH Teen Designer

As part of Keo's foundational work (left) responding to the word 'peaceful' using line, under the session "Elements of Design" B&W collages based on rhythm (2nd from left) and movement (3rd from left), and (right) informed by the Josef Albers exercise to learn how color theory works.

In conversation with Marc Holland, he was quick to say “AFH is so phenomenal.”  Fitting with AFH’s pioneering model founded over 33 years ago, Marc noted that MassArt is the only school of its kind—a publicly funded, free-standing art and design school that offered the first arts degree in the nation over 150 years ago. He shared, “I can’t put enough emphasis on how important a community is to connect artists…not only in this context [connecting high school art students to college art students], but also the supportive community that comes by being immersed in the AFH community—CityLab students are meeting people for the right reasons.”  He noted that many of MassArt’s alumni actually worked at AFH as a teen or joined as a mentor, including AFH’s Foundation Studio Director Dominique Nelson, who is working as a teaching assistant alongside MassArt Professor Kyle Browne, who leads the College Pathway course work. 

“[MassArt] is my alma matta, so it feels refreshing to be in a class setting with MassArt in the context of AFH—an entrepreneurial community working on commissioned jobs for clients.” —Dominique Nelson, AFH Foundation Studio Director

An added benefit are the office hours AFH offers to the nine CityLab students—offering a flexibility that MassArt can’t. Dominique mentioned that the additional office hours “allow CityLab students the opportunity to practice their newly acquired skills and complete their course assignments in a studio context.” Being surrounded by an artistic community while taking this course validates students’ creative passion and becomes a motivational factor for their growth. 

Citylab senior Alanna Ocasio, who joined this dual enrollment program for her love of art and creating, talked about the value of in-person office hours, something not offered through the other non-art college credit courses she is enrolled in. “Office hours in my other college credit pathways are usually by email and not as helpful, for communication in writing can be misunderstood,” Alanna shared, “but when you’re able to be face-to-face to clear things up and address questions in real time, you gain a deeper understanding [of concepts].” 

CityLab student Alanna Ocasio practicing foundational work (R) responding to the word 'insecurity' (L) with value and line and (C) with value only.

CityLab's pilot program marks an exciting first step toward shaping the future of dual enrollment in the arts for Revere’s students. Being a new Pathway, the program also offers students the opportunity to provide feedback on course design, which will help the next cohort.

“It [dual enrollment] opens new pathways for students' creative and academic success…transforming their talent into a lifelong purpose, while contributing to a more inclusive and vibrant creative landscape.” —Dr. Stacey Mulligan, CityLab, Principal

Leveraging AFH’s Co-Lab program to add value to CityLab and MassArt's efforts is yet another way AFH impacts the creative economy and empowers young people to use the power of creativity to build their futures. 

“AFH’s mission and the space it provides young people commands attention…it’s important to us and the City, and it’s important to the art world, and to CityLab students who are now a part of it.” —Marc Holland, MassArt

Interested in AFH Co-Lab? Learn more and connect here.