In Spring 2021, Youth Art Exchange’s Youth Advisory Board (YAB) led the project: Youth Voices Matter: Our Silence is Not For Sale. Youth Art Exchange’s youth artists, all public high school students, created artwork about social justice issues and YAB chose four of these pieces to be featured on two billboards in San Francisco that will be installed in May 2021 at Bayshore and Sunnydale and Mission and 14th Street.

Why did YAB decide to create this project?

“Our project is inspired by the many young activists currently advocating for social and political change; these youth-led organizations, such as those advocating for Vote16, raising awareness about climate change, etc., remind us of the power and influence that youth have. Our goal is to encourage members of the community, particularly youth and BIPOC, to start conversations and enact change regarding the injustices they are passionate about. The billboards will include artwork and designs, centered around the theme of social justice, by YAX artists. Through the virtual billboard launch party, we will be able to showcase the billboards and the process of setting it up; the YAX artists who contributed to the billboards will be able to present their designs and the significance behind them. In having YAX artists contribute to the billboards and share their art, we hope to give them an opportunity to speak about the issues that are important to them. The workshop and interactive portion of the virtual event will hopefully empower others to create their own art and start conversations.”

This project is supported by BLING.

Learn more about this project here.