In daily consultation with Monterey County Probation Department Youth Center staff, Program Director Linda Pedrazzini Hevern and her team of Arts Council teaching artists provide specialized classes that help incarcerated juveniles find new direction and develop their great potential.
This transformational program is the recipient of the National Association of Counties’ 2015 National Arts & Culture Award for Solutions and Innovation.
Students gain skills in drawing, painting and design while learning to reduce anxiety, communicate feelings, and collaborate. As they create paintings and murals, they also develop their capacity to plan, persist and solve a wide range of problems. While developing natural imagery and refining their work, they acquire a new awareness of, and empathy for Nature. As they prepare final exhibitions and learn of the great interest and appreciation by the community, they gain self-confidence, improved self-esteem and a new sense of possibilities for their future.