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Youth Alliance Showcase


In what has become an annual event at SDAI, our 2019 Youth Alliance Showcase features outstanding art by young people in San Diego County.  In 2019, we are featuring artworks curated by three local organizations:

  • California Art Education Association San Diego Chapter (CAEA-SD)

  • Words Alive

  • Vista Hill


CAEA-SD issued a call for submissions to all high school students in grades 9-12 in San Diego County, asking them to submit original artwork using any media of their choice. After a jury review, over 100 artworks – paintings, sculpture, drawings, and photography – were selected for the exhibition.  These artworks represent a pinnacle of standards-based and competitively juried student art.

CAEA-SD’s annual show of the best high school art in San Diego County is called the Groff Exhibition, named in memory of Bruce Wayne Groff, a San Diego arts educator. Groff was well-known as an activist artist and staunch advocate for arts education and professional development. He received the Outstanding Secondary Visual Arts Educator award in 2007. Bruce Groff passed away in 2012.

Words Alive provides literacy services to underserved students and families. Based on its 2019 reading program and work in the community, Words Alive asked school-age participants to illustrate issues such as youth seeking asylum and coping with trauma, write blackout poetry, and compose welcome cards to new immigrants. Some of the best examples of each of these endeavors were selected for Youth Alliance Showcase 2019.

Vista Hill, a non-profit service organization headquartered in San Diego, helps individuals with challenges resulting from mental illness, substance use disorder or intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Since art is often used as an enrichment and therapeutic endeavor, SDAI has been partnering with Vista Hill Foundation to offer quality art experiences to Vista Hill clients.  Examples of outstanding outwork developed in this program will be featured in Youth Alliance Showcase 2019.