Kid Row banner at the Annual Craft Lake City DIY Festival. Photo by Mary Elizabeth Hammond.
Craft Lake City is pleased to announce a new creative entrepreneurial program for youth being offered this spring at two afterschool sites in Salt Lake County. The Craft Lake City Youth Artisan Entrepreneur Program is made possible through funding provided by the Utah Afterschool Network and the Falbaum-Caillet Family Foundation. The program provides free, enriching afterschool arts programming to elementary aged youth, while preparing them to exhibit at Kid Row, the youth entrepreneur vendor section of the 14th Annual Craft Lake City® DIY Festival® Presented By Harmons.
Kid Row vendor at the 13th Annual Craft Lake City DIY Festival Presented by Harmons in 2021. Image by John Barkiple
“Craft Lake City’s youth programming inspires and empowers kids to begin exploring, experimenting, and creating works of their own and even participating in the local creative economy,” says Angela H. Brown, Executive Director of Craft Lake City. “We are thrilled to expand our youth enrichment programming for 2022 with the help of Falbaum-Caillet Family Foundation and the Utah Afterschool Network!”
For the inaugural year of the Youth Artisan Entrepreneur Program, Craft Lake City is partnering with Promise South Salt Lake’s Hser Ner Moo Community Center and Backman Elementary School to provide a series of afterschool artisan and entrepreneurial workshops for twenty-four students. The series provides hands-on learning from established local artisans across four different artistic mediums, with “lab” days in between each instructional workshop to allow students to spend more time working with each medium while creating products they can sell as Kid Row vendors at the 14th Annual Craft Lake City DIY Festival Presented By Harmons this August.
Backman Elementary students practice embroidery techniques with staff. Image by Alexis Perno
“Backman Elementary currently has no art teacher. Instead, many of our teachers try to incorporate some art into their classroom curriculum. Craft Lake City is making it possible for our students who have a desire to learn and express themselves through arts and craft instruction more indepthly to do so as a no-cost extracurricular activity,” says Ines Lazalde, Backman Elementary School Counselor.
In addition to the art instruction, Craft Lake City staff will work with students on their entrepreneurial skills, including writing a business pitch, completing a DIY Fest exhibitor application, designing their Kid Row booth layout, and role playing interacting with customers and conducting financial transactions. The final step of their entrepreneurial instruction will be participation in Kid Row this August, which will allow the kids to put their new business skills into action in a real-world festival setting while celebrating their creative accomplishments and earning money! The Backman Elementary students will be pooling the proceeds of their sales to donate to charity and to purchase more art supplies.
“This program will give these students the opportunity to explore entrepreneurship first-hand, learning valuable skills and lessons at a young age. Our hope is that this program will be the spark of interest for these kids to continue to grow and develop as creatives and entrepreneurs,” says Ben Trentelman, Executive Director of Utah Afterschool Network.
These twenty-four students will spend months building their own creative small business from the ground up—from sourcing funding, to creating products, to actually interacting with customers and selling their wares at a major arts festival. Through this innovative and enriching extracurricular arts program made possible by Utah Afterschool Network and Falbaum-Caillet Family Foundation, all participants will receive materials and supplies needed to create their artwork and inventory, application and exhibitor fee waivers, and admission and food vouchers for the DIY Fest for themselves and their families.
“The Youth Artisan Entrepreneur Program provides these kids a glimpse into the life of a working artist, inspiring them to consider the arts as a viable career pursuit. Students will have the opportunity to explore entrepreneurship first-hand while interacting with local arts professionals. Our hope is that this program will spark a life-long love of the arts for these kids, inspiring them to keep learning and creating,” says Barrett Falbaum, Board Member, Falbaum-Caillet Family Foundation.
Promise South Salt Lake Hser Ner Moo participant practicing Pointalism painting. Image by Rebecca Yund
“We are really excited to be a partner location for this program with Craft Lake City. This dynamic and engaging programming provides youth not only an opportunity to have art instruction from some of the community’s most talented artists, but also gain valuable entrepreneurial skills that will stay with them throughout life, no matter what future career they may have,” says Kelli Meranda, Director of Promise South Salt Lake. “The family engagement component of the program is also particularly invaluable. The free admission tickets and meal vouchers that are provided to families will help to ensure that they can participate fully and comfortably, regardless of income.”
| Media Inquiries? Contact Us! |
About Utah Afterschool Network:
Utah Afterschool Network is a statewide agency that ensures Utah’s children have access to high-quality afterschool programs that keep them engaged, learning, and safe. UAN assists afterschool teams in building quality programs by mentoring program staff, facilitating professional learning opportunities, and collaboratively creating a model of best practices for programs statewide. UAN also supports national and statewide advocacy initiatives that promote afterschool programs.
About Falbaum-Caillet Family Foundation:
Falbaum-Caillet Family Foundation is a private family foundation that supports local culture, underprivileged youth education, and other meaningful programs and services that create a positive impact.
About Promise South Salt Lake:
Promise South Salt Lake is a city-wide afterschool program serving K-12 youth at 13 locations and available for free to all residents of South Salt Lake.
About Backman Elementary:
Backman Elementary, in Salt Lake School District, serves a diverse population of Pre-K to 6 grade students in the Fairpark community.
About Craft Lake City:
Founded in 2009 by Angela H. Brown, Executive Editor of SLUG (Salt Lake UnderGround) Magazine, Craft Lake City® is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization with the mission to educate, promote and inspire local artisans while elevating the creative culture of the Utah arts community through science, technology and art. Craft Lake City strives to further define the term “Craft,” by modernizing the definition for handmade creativity.
craftlakecity.com @craftlakecity
Craft Lake City’s year-round programming is supported in part by the residents of Salt Lake County through the Zoo, Arts & Parks (ZAP) Program, the Salt Lake Arts Council, the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, and Utah Arts & Museums, with funding from the State of Utah and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The 14th Annual Craft Lake City DIY Festival Presented by Harmons is Utah’s largest local-centric art, music, science and technology festival. The DIY Fest features hundreds of local artisans, vintage vendors, foodies, youth entrepreneurs, performers, & STEM exhibitors over three days the second weekend of August. The 14th Annual Craft Lake City DIY Festival Presented by Harmons features the Google Fiber STEM Building, the Mark Miller Subaru Leave Your Mark Park Kids’ Area, the 90.9FM KRCL Stage, the SLUG Mag Stage, the Offside Print & Apparel Volunteer Lounge, and Kid Row sponsored by Utah Afterschool Network. Additional support is provided by in part by the residents of Salt Lake County through the Zoo, Arts & Parks (ZAP) Program, the Salt Lake Arts Council, the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, the Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation, the Stephen G. & Susan E. Denkers Family Foundation, the Lawrence T. & Janet T. Dee Foundation, the Sorenson Legacy Foundation, the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Office, PBS Utah, 24tix.com, XMission, the STEM Action Center of Utah, Silicon Slopes, and Utah Arts & Museums, with funding from the State of Utah and the National Endowment for the Arts.