The module offers an immersing Just Growth Initiative experience in Amelia, a town and local administrative division of the province of Terni, in the Umbria region of central Italy. Just half an hour’s drive from the famous Marmore Falls, and with a population of about 11,000, Amelia is one of the oldest towns in Umbria. Sitting high on a hill in the southwestern corner of the province, it overlooks the valleys of both the River Tiber and the River Nera. Participants will be involved in the development of new ideas while figuring out how some of the old ones may build upon forward-looking perspectives, with a history of advancing breakthrough ideas or actions that have a tremendous impact. Our workshop-style classes, practical lessons, and one-to-one consultations will help you promote the well-being of humanity through diligent creative work and positive feedback from a diverse group of fellow residents.

Cristiano Carrotti
Born in Terniin 1981, currently lives and works in Rome. Cristiano Carotti works with painting, sculpture, and installation focusing on the influence of symbols on social dynamics. In his latest research, he investigated the conflict between Homo Naturalis and Mechanicus. This new corpus of works started with “Cella”; the installation presented in the Pietra santa Baptistery. This new cycle celebrates the recovery of stolen spaces accomplished by nature: natural geometries, beehives, and nests grow free on abandoned artifacts. They create contrasting visions for humans to face. For Carotti, these images represent the symbol of the relationship between human beings and nature; it’s in this regained bond that we should find the curative energies to overcome the current crisis. The molding of beehives in clay acquires a ritual, almost shamanic value. It symbolizes the reconciliation of the artist with the irnatural side. Many of the artworks are made of a mechanical element with a sculptural intrusion. The starting parts are objet trouvé that the artist finds in scrap yards. These once avant-garde vehicle parts were designed to follow the speed myth but today, they lay abandoned, replaced by a better version of themselves. These empty images of a frenzy lifestyle host ceramic sculptures, molded on wild beehives. The contrast between the two different parts comes not only from their contexts but also from the diverging idea of time that they belong to. The first one was born to compress time through speed, while the second naturally hatched from the slow passing of the seasons. It is a clash between artifacts and nature. The choice of ceramics is strictly connected to the idea the artist has of time, especially the relation it should have with human activities and art. The creation of these works is a long process that cannot ignore bees and their time of work. The sculptures are later glazed with flashy colors, often iridescent like supercars, the fastest vehicles.

Aviva Jobin-Leeds
Aviva Jobin-Leeds is a multidisciplinary artist. From a young age, she has written and performed her music and poetry. She spent several years focused on political puppetry and worked as a stilt dancer, costume design assistant, studio manager, stage manager, and background vocalist. She then completed a degree in Expressive Art Therapy at Lesley University. She has created and managed multiple After School Puppetry and Performing Arts Programs and is currently working on a mosaic project in NYC while staying focused on her work printmaking and songwriting.

Erin Latham Ph.D.
Erin Latham is a mixed media printmaking and installation artist, and teaching artist, living and working in Oklahoma City, OK, US. She received her Master of Fine Arts from the Pratt Institute in 2012, and her Doctorate of Philosophy from the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts in 2022. Her work explores the world around her-the environment she exists within-both ecological and social-through an interplay of materials and processes. These processes are both theoretical and practice-based. Her work is predicated upon the research of subjectivity and nature, via the human reaction to the environment and the other. She is concerned with the effect she has upon the environments she exists within and seeks to create work that has an understanding of its impact. She is discovering what it means to be an intersubjective artist working within collaborative environments while also nurturing her individual artistic autonomy. The work she makes both collaboratively and individually is meant to awaken wonder in the participant/viewer and allow them to reconnect themselves with moments of clarity in nature and with others. Her current body of work is exploring play through process and form while continuing to explore the effect nature has on humans and the moment of wonder created in these interactions.

Angela M. Mosley, Ph.D.
Angela M. Mosley is a performance artist who uses the Arts as a medium to engage young adults in social justice reform. A Chicago native and a community developer, she brings over 23 years of experience in civic leadership and diversity management. Angela has Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts, a Master’s degree in Higher Education Administration, and a doctorate in Art Aesthetics and Philosophy. She centers her work around the expansion of opportunities through workforce development and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) initiatives. Her current work in the United States infuses cybersecurity and music to redefine modernity in the age of technology.

YT Lady Artivism: An Exploration of Performative White Tears
For non-European bodies, white feminism has been used as a weapon of white supremacy and patriarchy. Deployed against People of Color for centuries, while the “fragility” of cisgender white women has evoked the “damsel in distress” caricature. Too often when white women fear for their lives, people of color get hurt. This problem requires that white women evaluate their oppressive tendencies through self-examination, and change their behaviors to create a future that is positive for ALL others. This session will unpack the symbolism behind white women’s tears, the helpless victim trope, and the leveraging of racial power through conversation that will evoke self-reflection. Incorporating personal visual vignettes of Oklahoman artist Erin Latham, learn of her self-educating journey to become an artivist and impact future generations within her community.

Identity Workshop
The purpose of this workshop is to create a sense of group awareness of identity and socio-political identity within the community. We will begin with identity-based social network graphing to situate ourselves in our larger world narratives and context. Throughout the time together we will engage with movement, poetry, and inner dialogue to work towards understanding and embodiment of each person’s identity and spiritual self in the context of their community. We will do activities that involve self-awareness, gratitude, movement, journaling, discussion, and embodiment exploration.

Innovation and Cooperative Economics (ICE)
ICE is a social lab and convening entity whose primary purpose is to educate, assist, and advocate for the expansion of cooperative economic models and other innovative economic development concepts that diversify and expand the economic eco-system. These models include: worker-owned cooperatives, housing cooperatives, community land trusts, sharing economy platforms, and financial institutions and products that support funding cooperative enterprises.

Healing in Artivism
What is your “why” to artivism? In connecting the soul of the ancestors to the work of the community, we establish boundaries which enables us as healers to stay well and in commune with ourselves. We build networks consciously and strategically in order to persist in our active abolitionists work for the present time while remaining covered in the work we do for the future. But how does our “why” link to our self-care? How do we as individuals and as collaboratives integrate techniques into our daily practices that enables us to maintain the sanctity of who we are and what we do?

A joint jury, composed of YAC Board Members (F. Zamora, L. Kennedy), mentors/facilitators (mentors, The Art of C-A-R-E), Erin Latham, Ph.D. (Program Director, YAC) and Jewel Gatling (Community Activist), will operate the selection of five (5) participants.

The selection will be based on artistic merit and the consistency of the candidates’ practice with the aims of The Art of C-A-R-E and YAC’s vision/mission.

Please fill out the application form by including your:

• Basic/contact information;
• Motivation letter (up to 1000 words) clearly linking your practice to activism;
• Artist statement (up to 300 words);
• Curriculum Vitae (up to 2 A4 pages, font size 12);
• Portfolio with a selection of relevant work/research, as follows:
  • Images: Submit up to 10, at 100 dpi and medium-sized
  • Texts: Submit up to 3 examples, published or unpublished
  • Audio files: Submit up to 3 examples at a duration of up to 10 minutes each
  • Videos: Submit either URLs if available online or use one of the following upload services only: Wetransfer, or Dropbox. Be careful with links’ expiry dates!

All material must be labeled with surname followed by an underscore in the file name. For example: John Jones will label his submitted images as Jones_(title of image).jpg.

Only digital submissions are accepted.

In PDF format ONLY, please submit the following:

• Motivation letter (up to 1000 words) 
• Artist statement (up to 300 words);
• Curriculum Vitae (up to 2 A4 pages, font size 12);
• Portfolio.

Once we review your application materials, we will schedule an informal interview.

In addition, we require:

$50 deposit sent via PayPal (see payment button below) – refunded if we are not able to confirm admission.