The Aspen Art Museum welcomes the 2023 Youth Art Expo: Puppets, Masks, and Storytelling featuring over 1,000 youth art submissions from students K-12, spanning over two-thirds of the museum this May. This year's biennial Youth Expo is mentored and designed by the Puerto Rican art collective Poncili Creación and the non-profit MAPS (Music Art Puppet Sound). Poncili Creación is known across the world for its creative street performances featuring puppets that optimize storytelling, and MAPS (Music Art Puppet Sound), founded in 2018, utilizes their organization as a vessel bringing experimental visual art, theater, horticulture, and music practices to underserved and marginalized communities. The Youth Art Expo demonstrates this connection between education and art that celebrates the unique creativity of young artists to expand educational outreach by bringing arts education and support to underserved communities in rural Colorado that cannot keep arts education in their curriculum. The mentorship, direction, and inspiration from Poncili Creación MAPS (Music Art Puppet Sound) will give participating students the professional experience of being an exhibiting artist and will allow all students to channel their creativity into the themes of Puppets, Masks, and Storytelling, allowing the museum to become a classroom. The Youth Art Expo challenges the ideas of who gets to make art, inspiring youth communities in Western Colorado. The Aspen Art Museum Education team organizes the Expo to foster creativity, conversation, connection, and community by cultivating art and artists and expanding cultural vibrancy through diverse voices. The Aspen Art Museum Admission is FREE courtesy of Amy and John Phelan, and the museum is thankful for additional support. A suggested donation of $25 will be welcome at the door.
Photography by: Photo Courtesy of the Artists, Poncili Creacion
