We are a network of contemporary Filipino artists and art educators doing collaborative workshops under the banner Young Artists Studio (YAS). YAS is a service-oriented group composed of contemporary Filipino artists and art educators doing collaborative art production trainings year-round. YAS wishes to give a venue for potential artists across age groups to learn techniques and styles of art production while instilling essential life values, creativity, social awareness and cultural interest.
YAS believes that art is a powerful tool to influence communities, improve lives, and transform society. Aside from conducting art trainings, YAS regularly holds art-based outreach programs in coordination with CreatingSpace Inc., a non-government organization dedicated to sustainable arts and culture.
YAS students are a mix of different age groups with majority coming from toddlers to young kids (4-10 y/o), teens and adults. On a larger scale, YAS’ objective is to promote art as a major component in holistic human development, a sustainable profession and a catalyst for social transformation.
Teaching Philosophy:
Simply put, our teaching philosophy is student-oriented as we ensure that our students are getting maximum learning progress based on their individual processes, personal interests and strengths. We give our students carefully selected exercises with attention to their levels of skill, coupled with available guidance to help them render their vision while giving them enough space for going after their personal identity and preference as artists.
Art for Beginners class 2011
Competencies:
We are proud to maintain and continuously improve in our existing strengths. Tagged as the Five Ps of YAS, our strong areas are our Program, People, Practice, Partnerships and Passion. Since our establishment in 2009, our students and their parents frequently affirm our Five Ps as they continue to register in our programs the whole year.
Program. We constantly review and revise our program curricula depending on class composition as we try to subjectivize even our group classes. Our students undergo a diagnostic exercise prior to workshop proper to help us identify their priority areas for improvement and also their own learning processes.
People. YAS network of teachers are also key in successful art education as we are confident that our artists-teachers share our vision and professionalism. Artists-teachers, even if they are well-experienced in their fields, still undergo trainings prior to handling a class in order to ensure quality teaching with the right tools and to set the ground for a healthy relationship with students.
Practice. Aside from art techniques and skills, we also teach our students the essential qualities that artists should have which are criticality, dynamism, resourcefulness and willingness to share their talents. We make sure that we let our students experience the whole process of art from production, exhibition and even the market. We regularly hold exhibits in both mainstream and alternative art spaces to make our students acquainted with the ‘Art World’. Since YAS artists-teachers are also practitioners, they are able to share their personal experiences in the art world via their personal projects.
Partnerships. We maintain three types of partnerships: partnership with our student, partnership with our students’ parents or guardians, and partnerships with institutions who share or complement our vision. We highlight our relationship with our students as partnerships and not student-mentor type because we want them to remember that they too will be our colleagues in the future and therefore will become our partners in promoting art-based advocacies. The parents and guardians are also our partners as we both share observations on the learning progress, behavior and even “dreams” of the students. Institutional linkages help us fulfill our vision and mission. Current institutional linkages involve groups like CreatingSpace Inc., Pedxing Media, Little Stars 2011 of Sta. Lucia East Grand Mall and other institutions and companies who celebrate our initiatives.
Passion. People in YAS are the most passionate people in terms of art and advocacy. With the passion that YAS artists-teachers, teaching assistants and administrators share, that passion inevitably exponentiates with the growing number of students and networks.
Pastry Decorating class with Chef Cecille
