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Youth, Art, and that First Job

Painting, poetry, photography, sewing, even songwriting. These are some of the arts activities that Gianna Rodriguez and the organization Baltimore Youth Artsbring to young people across Baltimore.

Baltimore Youth Arts, which is run by artists, provides artistic and professional opportunities to teens; it tries to empower them to become leaders in their communities. Gianna Rodriguez, who started Baltimore Youth Arts, has just received a community fellowship from the Open Society Institute Baltimore. Like the nine other fellows, Rodriguez will receive $60,000 over the next 18 months to fund a local project. The nonprofit Open Society Institute focuses on the needs of Baltimore’s underserved communities, and Gianna Rodriguez’s project focuses one such community: formerly incarcerated young people who have returned to their communities.

Sheilah Kast is the host of On The Record, Monday-Friday, 9:30-10:00 am.
Maureen Harvie is Senior Supervising Producer for On the Record. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and joined WYPR in 2014 as an intern for the newsroom. Whether coordinating live election night coverage, capturing the sounds of a roller derby scrimmage, interviewing veterans, or booking local authors, she is always on the lookout for the next story.