ABOUT

SEE ME BECAUSE… is a public archive and platform for the self-determined voices of youth from communities that have been historically marginalized. Participants share how they see themselves, how the feel they are seen by others, stories from their lives, visions of their futures, and feelings about family, community, society, education, and love. SeeMeBecause.org is a living archive of hundreds of youth, and growing each year, thanks to the generous and visionary support of Humanities New York, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Wisconsin Humanities Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

ORIGINS

SEE ME BECAUSE… is the statement completed by youth participants in The Art Start Portrait Project - a multi-media project and platform for youth participants to portray the complex narratives of their identities, asking the world to see them as they chose to be seen.

Through Art Start workshops, in-depth dialogue, oral history interviews and photoshoots, participants explore personal identity and envision their lives beyond circumstance and stereotype. With support from world-class photographers, retouchers, stylists, and oral historians, those visions come to life through multimedia gallery exhibitions, public campaigns, and the SeeMeBecause.org online archive, offering a platform for self-determination, representation, and freedom.

The Art Start Portrait Project challenges the pattern that stereotypes, statistics, and circumstance should determine our youths' existence, or that the identity that society has assigned them will be their one-dimensional reality. We believe that each individual has an autonomous and creative spirit which is inherently healing and liberating. With the freedom to explore, design and imagine oneself, the courage to believe, and access to the resources to create, we can profoundly transform how we identify and how we interact with our lives, futures, and each other.

ABOUT ART START

Since 1991, Art Start has used the creative process to nurture the voices, hearts, and minds of historically marginalized youth, offering a student-centered space for them to imagine, believe, and represent their creative vision for their lives and communities.

Through consistent workshops with long-term partners,  including youth organizations, schools, alternative sentencing programs, and residences for youth and families experiencing homelessness, art becomes the starting point of a larger life process, and the start of larger conversations about the future of our communities.

Learn more at art-start.org and @artstartorg on Instagram and Facebook.

Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this website do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.