Creating Equitable Access to Creative Careers 2024

Internships are an important step for career development. Providing stipends for students to participate in an internship is crucial to ensure equity amongst participants. Many students need to work while in school to support themselves and their families. We don’t want them to miss out on opportunities that will help them to build successful futures. Your donation allows us to welcome students from all walks of life to gain the benefits that this program offers.

Creating Equitable Access to Creative Careers
The Center for Visual Art (CVA), MSU Denver’s off campus art gallery, is part of the university community and is firmly rooted in the Denver arts community. Our exhibitions feature artists from all over the world, alongside local artists. CVA’s network at MSU Denver and the broader community make it the perfect place to introduce teens to careers in creative fields.

Our signature education program, the Art + Action Lab, offers a paid internship where high school students get an inside look at different careers in the arts with creative professionals, while developing their individual art practice. With classroom activities led by MSU Denver student teachers, the interns gain insight into the college experience, while allowing the student teachers to gain professional experience in a comfortable environment.

In this program we focus on three things.

• Workforce + Professional Development: expanding interns’ knowledge of creative industries in Denver with behind-the-scenes tours, studio visits and workshops. Meeting and working with professionals to understand the industry and the expectation within the industry for professionalism, creativity, and collaboration.
• Network Development: building relationships between interns, MSU Denver students and arts professionals. These relationships give the interns an entrance into the art community and the opportunity to envision themselves as art professionals. Plus, they provide a strong support system of advocates who help the interns gain confidence in their creativity and provide opportunities for development.
• Communicating through art: the end goal of the program is for each intern to have completed an artwork that is then shared with the community at CVA. Whether through an exhibition in CVA’s 965 Project Gallery, pieces performed during the First Friday Art Walk, or in a published book, each intern creates using their own voice, sharing the stories of their lives. In this way, we discover how these teens experience the world and realize the changes that are possible.

How can you help?
Your contribution to CVA’s Art + Action Lab will help ensure that students throughout the Denver Area (potential future Roadrunners) have equitable access to the programming we provide. We have set our fundraising goal at $6,000, the cost of intern stipends for one semester. However, the internship runs three times per year and we’re counting on you to help us raise more than that. Please join us in providing opportunities for these talented youth in our community.