Catalysts Of Innovation
There are exemplary youth arts organizations that support and inspire the next generation of creatives to use creativity as a force for social change. To honor these organizations’ work, we recently named our inaugural Adobe Creative Catalyst Awards recipients.
As a means to further their work, we’ve introduced a Project 1324 Innovation Grant program, that award recipients – or Creative Catalysts – are eligible to apply for. These grants fund an organization’s dream program for the next year.
In our first-ever round of grants, we’re proud to support youth programs championing the use of creativity for change around a wide-range of social issues, including preventive health, education, immigration, and ethnic, cultural and sexual identities. Here’s a quick look at the Creative Catalysts who are embarking on their Innovation Grant projects this year:
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Destiny Arts Center, Oakland, California, USA
Destiny’s New Media Arts Program, supported by the Project 1324, is a series of 8-week sessions at Destiny Arts Center designed to prepare creative young people ages 18-22 for professional development in online multimedia. Apprentices will learn film, digital photography, video production, editing, publishing, social networking and branding using the latest technology and tools, working in a team and supported by leaders in the field. This program is powered by Yabe Media and will set the groundwork for a long-term sustained multimedia program for Destiny Arts Center.
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Prayasam, Calcutta, India
For Prayasam’s Innovation Grant project, they intend to strengthen and develop a fully equipped media hub and provide a platform for self-expression for marginalized youth to engage in diverse forms of communication media to share their probable solutions to pressing issues and problems affecting their daily lives. 60 youth mentors will act as change agents and spread awareness through media projects on preventive health, education, water, hygiene and sanitation within their communities. Through film festivals, outreach workshops, and advocacy youth films will be shared with government, community and policy stakeholders to amplify their voices and impact the social conditions addressed in their films.
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RAW Art Works, Lynn, Massachusetts, USA
RAW’s Innovation Grant project “Home” will cultivate powerful stories of immigrants in America, and shine a light on the determination and complex stories of the first generation. RAW’s aspiring artists will turn their creative lens toward their community, and focus on the untold stories of the homeless, foster care, immigration, and other home-related stories.
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Say Sí, San Antonio, Texas, USA
Say Sí’s forthcoming project, Proyecto Papalóte – which means kite in the Nahuatl language indigenous to Mesoamerica – will be a National, Central American, and International cultural and education exchange initiative between the youth of Say Sí and the youth of fellow Creative Catalysts RAW Art Works, SpyHop and Prayasam in addition to the organization Faro de Oriente in Mexico City. The goal of Proyecto Papalóte is to contribute to a community of reciprocal learning and to encourage the focus of being a global citizen.
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High Tech Youth Network, Auckland, New Zealand & Oceania
High Tech Youth’s Innovation Grant project focuses on advanced programming to prepare youth for careers in digital media, including creating new mentorship and paid internship opportunities for local youth, connecting interns with more advanced professional opportunities, and collaboration opportunities at the Unique Film Festival and Wananga with industry mentors.
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Spy Hop, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Spy Hop’s Innovation Grant project “Move the Dial” is an organization-wide initiative that utilizes youth-produced media to foster dialogue, identify solutions, and inspire action to close the gender imbalance, including LGBTQ, within Spy Hop and in the creative industry as a whole. The project is rooted in a challenge to all youth regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation, to utilize their media as a tool to increase diversity in the creative industry.