Problem Children

Honoring young creative spirits

Problem Children is a summer arts and creativity mentorship program for Bay Area teenagers.

Through one-on-one mentorship students are challenged to develop a creative project from conception to execution. The program culminates in a group exhibition.

Problem Children responds to a crucial gap in how we educate students outside the classroom: the need for physical spaces and strong communities that encourage young people to explore their curiosity and develop their gifts. We believe that if students are given the opportunity to do something great, they will.

By challenging students to explore deeply, we honor their personhood and further empower them to choose the lives they lead.

The learner must be led always from familiar objects toward the unfamiliar, guided along, as it were, a chain of flowers into the mysteries of life.

— Charles Willson Peale

Problem Children cohorts
year session artists mentors
2024 Summer Rama, Theo, Toto, Tristan Danica Taylor, Daniel Lucas, Jess Wilson, Lizette Greco
2023 Summer Alex, Annika, Carter, Kaiya, Lyn, Sarah Caroline Luu, Danica Taylor, Daniel Freeman, Jess Wilson, Nate Zack, Sofia Alicastro
2023 Winter airis, Giovana
2022 Summer airis, Ava, Chelsie Joy, Giovana, Josephine, Lea, Thea Blake Conway, Danica Taylor, Ian Arenas, Jeff Masamori, Jess Wilson, Maja Planinac, Steph Pan
2021 Summer Alisha, Bryan Char Simpson, Jeff Masamori, Lydia Horne, Peter Mark
2021 Winter Emerson, Monica, Nadine
2020 Summer Collin, Findlay, Helena, Monica, Nadine, Neeharika, and Samuel Danica Taylor, Daniel Lucas, Grayson Stebbins, Jeff Masamori, Kate Romanova, Madeleine Cordier, Peter Mark, Vanha Lam
2019 Summer Avery, Emerson, Sophia Blake Conway, Daniel Lucas, Jeff Masamori, Maja Planinac
2018 Summer Ella, Emerson, Joia Amy Lange, Daniel Lucas, Grayson Stebbins, Maja Planinac