We're Mutually Helping Each Other Out: Intergenerational Learning Between Adult Artists and Teen Participants Through a BIPOC , Community‐Centred Arts Programme

Abstract

This study examines intergenerational learning within a community‐based art education (CBAE) summer programme serving multilingual BIPOC youth in Oakland, California. Using embedded ethnography, semi‐structured interviews and surveys, we investigated how high school youth and adult teaching artists co‐created public art installations for community spaces. Grounded in communities of practice, culturally sustaining pedagogy and constructionism, findings reveal three interconnected outcomes: first, youth developed technical artistic and professional workforce competencies through hands‐on mentorship; second, newcomer youth practised English organically through low‐stakes collaborative art‐making; and third, participants deepened civic engagement and cultural identity by connecting personal immigrant experiences to local place‐based histories. This learning flowed in both directions, disrupting traditional power dynamics as adult artists also deepened their facilitation, leadership and community‐engaged practices through working alongside youth. This study contributes to CBAE by demonstrating how reciprocal intergenerational public art‐making creates unique conditions that bring together skill development, language practice, civic engagement and workforce readiness within BIPOC communities.