Briarpatch Youth Services will host its sixth annual Youth Arts Festival at its facilities at 2720 Rimrock Road on Saturday, Aug. 10, noon-4 p.m.
The Youth Arts Festival is one of two large-scale events that Briarpatch hosts every year. The afternoon will feature local visual and performing artists, ages 6-24, showcasing everything from stand-up comedians and musicians to painters, sculptors, jewelry makers, and more.
While performing artists will have time in the limelight on stage, visual artists will have the opportunity to set up their own exhibit and display their artwork for sale, with all proceeds going directly to them.
Briarpatch Youth Services is a nonprofit organization that has been serving the greater Madison community since 1971, with an overall mission of providing support and empowerment to young people experiencing homelessness and other difficult situations.
With programs spanning employment and justice services, Briarpatch ensures that young people have the tools and resources they need to thrive. But behind the success of any one young person is an additional commitment to the well-being of their whole family. Because of this, Briarpatch also offers a parent support program that gives parents the space to discuss conflicts and concerning behaviors.
“Parents, [youth’s] guiding figures, also need support as it relates to a young person growing up and transitioning through life and trying to figure out how to play this game that we call adulthood,” Briarpatch Development & Communications Director Ian Carter explained.
He continued: “We can connect them with all sorts of different tools, but if we send them back to the environment that they were in—and it’s in the same state that it was in when they initially came to us—then we’re really doing the entire family a major disservice.”
The Youth Arts Festival is one of Briarpatch’s regular opportunities to empower and uplift the young people that it serves by harnessing their many creative pursuits. “It [gives] them the ability to see how they are viewed in the world as it relates to their talent […] and allows them to step outside of whatever stigmas and allows their artistry to speak for them,” Carter said.
Carter notes that the festival has a practical aspect to it with an eye toward the future, by exposing these young artists to the process of having their art in a gallery and sharing some of the more private parts of their lives with the public.
“It gives them an opportunity to figure out, ‘Is this something that I may want to pursue as a career?’” he said.
Beyond the performances and exhibits, the Youth Arts Festival will also host a wide range of local resources such as the Dane County Library Service’s Bookmobile and The River Food Pantry, with a goal of educating community members about the kinds of support available to them, right here in Madison.
“The primary [takeaway is] that sense of community and a sense of support within that community,” Carter emphasized. “We are all interconnected. There’s an amazing amount of intersectionality that brings us all together. And I think the better we’re aware of that, the better we’re able to navigate life.
Festival goers will be able to enjoy free food throughout the afternoon, including brats, hotdogs, hamburgers, and vegetarian options. Mckenzie Regional Workforce Center and other organizations will also have interactive stations for younger children and “the young at heart,” including building stations, face painting, and more.
Young people are encouraged to sign up and be a part of this unique platform to perform and showcase their creativity to the larger Madison community. Sign-ups will be accepted through Aug. 2 and should be directed to [email protected].
For those interested in showing their support for the festival, sponsorships are still available for purchase.
