Teen art exhibit at MIA explores mental health and paths to wellbeing
La’Shonda Scott, a FAIR High School junior, is part of the Teen Perspectives exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Photo by David Pierini
By David Pierini, Editor
La’Shonda Scott concentrated on her sister’s face, her paint-soaked brush transferring a vibrant orange color to the canvas along the neckline.
She was completing a mixed media piece honoring their relationship. The painting shows the siblings’ faces with a butterfly between them and an array of buttons glued on the canvas to fill out the wings.
La’Shonda is softspoken, but, like the colors in her braids, her paint palette is bold.
“It does feel like a voice for me,” she said of her art practice. “I don’t talk much with people I don’t know, so when they look at my art, I want them to be able to see bits of my personality. I feel like the things that I make really show people who I am.”
The Fair High School junior and Northsider was finishing up a piece that will hang at the Minneapolis Institute of Art for the annual Teen Perspectives show, opening May 9.
Sponsored by MIA and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, the program supports high school students to explore community health through art. For this, its fifth year, Teen Perspectives invited the young artists to explore mental and behavioral health, identity, community care, and self-expression.
The show, entitled “Yesterday and Today,” will run through July.
“Art holds a unique power—it allows young people to process experiences, share their stories, and see themselves reflected in new ways, always, and particularly in these unsettling times,” said Virajita Singh, MIA’s chief diversity and inclusion officer. “When we slow down and truly look at art and make art, we experience connection, curiosity, and healing.”
During seven Saturday workshops at MIA, the teens met with professional artists who shared advice on making a living through art.
Among the artists was Northsider Baki, Baki, Baki, who works in several mediums, including film, collage, and shadow puppets.
Baki, Baki, Baki was among the professional artists who worked with teens and shared their wisdom on building an art career. Photo by David Pierini
“My role is to be a representative and a resource to show what it looks like to be an adult and have a consistent art practice,” they said. “When I was their age, I didn’t understand why elders would tell me, ‘I do not envy your position. You were born in a present I don’t understand.’ When I talk to the youth, I can impart wisdom on them by telling them they are not just the future. They are completely whole and valid right now, and have things to say.
“Creativity and sovereignty are your superpower.”
Patience Epps, a Northsider who will graduate from Fair this spring, explored generational curses during the workshop.
A part of her piece has thin wooden panels representing different stages of life. There is a caterpillar that becomes a butterfly.
The panels represent “all eyes on me,” and that renders the caterpillar unable to speak.
“You feel like a little dead, and then you start living through anxiety, knowing you’re bigger than anxiety,” she said as she showed a visitor a digital sketch. “So you start growing, and the caterpillar becomes a butterfly. There are flowers going through the mouth, as I can finally speak now.”