Art is often seen as an individual pursuit, a solitary artist creating in isolation. But through my latest photography project, I explore a different perspective: art as a shared educational experience, a dialogue between students, teachers, and the environments where creativity unfolds. Inspired by Alec Soth’s Advice for Young Artists, which captures the dynamics of college art schools, my project shifts the focus to younger, budding artists in their earliest stages of creative development. Over the fall of 2024, I visited ten schools in Des Moines, Iowa, observing and documenting art classrooms from kindergarten through high school.

This project – Advice from Young Artists – emerged from a desire to look at how artistic interests are nurtured and shaped during the formative years of education. Unlike the university-level art students in Soth’s work, these younger creators are just beginning to discover the language of art. They’re less concerned with mastery and more with exploration, their work driven by curiosity, experimentation, and play. In this sense, their art offers a raw, unfiltered glimpse into the creative process.

In these classrooms, art was rarely a solitary act. Instead, it was often a collaborative experience, unfolding through conversations between students, guidance from teachers, and the interplay of ideas within the classroom. These interactions highlight the importance of relationships in shaping artistic growth.

The classroom environments themselves became characters in the story, rich with detail and personality. Paint-streaked sinks, jars of brushes spilled across tables, and easels and drying racks with works in progress. These spaces were not just backdrops but active participants in the creative process, fostering a sense of community and shared purpose. My images aim to capture this texture, the way these environments reflect and amplify the joy and messages of making art.

Words matter, too. Teachers and students shared their thoughts for what adults can take away from these young learners. Such as this advice from a 5th grader at Findley Elementary School: “You can’t really make mistakes in art.”

Ultimately, this project is a celebration of the foundations of creativity. It’s about the moments when a kindergartener’s first brush strokes become a source of pride, or when a high schooler’s ceramics impresses us with its depth. It’s about how collaboration—with peers, mentors, and spaces—shapes these young artists, as creators and as people.

Through these photographs, I hope to invite viewers to reflect on their own experiences with creativity and education. Who nurtured your first creative impulses? What environments made you feel free to experiment? And how can we, as a society, better support the next generation of artists? These are the questions my work seeks to raise, honoring the vibrant, collective spirit of art education and its power to inspire.