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The San Diego American Indian Health Center is easy to see from the street in Bankers Hill, with beautiful Native American artwork on the face of the building.

But right next door is another part of the organization that’s harder to find — their youth outreach center.

It’s been providing critical programming for decades and bridging the gap between generations in San Diego’s native community.

“We are considered ‘urban Indians’ because we all live in the urban area of San Diego. There are 18 reservations that surround San Diego but they are Kumeyaay,” said 89-year-old Randy Edmonds.

The elder said the youth center is a space for Native Americans of all nations to connect with their roots.

He and his family belong to the Kiowa tribe of Oklahoma. His son Larry helps lead some of the youth programs.

“(We’re) having them learn their language. We get them involved in art. We have some classes in beading, moccasins, talking circles,” Larry said. “A lot of Natives will come in and get involved in a circle and talk about the things that they go through, and how we can help them in their lives.”

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - A new art installation at the Hawaii State Arm Museum is showing the strength of homeless youth in the state.

The exhibit is called “Not All Backpacks Carry the Same Weight.”

It features 60 backpacks designed by youth who are struggling with homelessness. On the bags are written phrases, colors and adornments reflecting the artists’ personal journeys, struggles and dreams.

The exhibit was created through the Residential Youth Services & Empowerment program, also known as “RYSE,” and done in collaboration with Moanalua High School’s English honors classes.

It was also led by international artist Fatiha Kheddaoui and Dominique Meyer Gere.

Organizers said the exhibit aims to shed light on the urgent issue of youth homelessness in the community.

The installation began Saturday and runs through June 5.

(CBS DETROIT) - As Cinco de Mayo celebrations come to a close in Detroit, an art exhibit remains open in Mexicantown until May 12.

Displayed in the Mexicantown Galleria, a celebration of refugee art and culture is recognized with youth refugee art.

“I think it is very, very important that the community understands who is in their state, who is in their city,” says Kayla Park, community engagement manager with Samaritas.

She says the youth exhibit displays over 50 pieces of art sharing the stories of young refugees. Some of the work displayed is created by refugees from places like Honduras, El Salvador, and in Shakil Aramna’s case, Afghanistan.

LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) – More than 300 students from more than 35 states submitted essays and various forms of artwork for the second annual Bring the Noise scholarship contest and exhibition. This year’s focus was all about mental health and students submitted work that explored how they, as Asian American teens, can establish healthy self-journeys.

“To be able to say, ‘I’m going to take off my mask and show my true self unapologetically,’ is something that I’m just very proud that this generation of young people are able to do,” said Tommy Chang, one of judges of the contest. “Something that I know growing up in America in the 80s and 90s I didn’t have that instinct.”

Submissions included essays, artwork and videos of students singing and dancing. Out of all of the submissions, 10 students were awarded a cash prize scholarship, totaling $10,000 given to the winners. Students said they hope their art can have an impact.

DENVER — File under “only in Colorado:” Denver youth submitted artistic designs for skis, then worked with local nonprofit Arts Street and other organizations to make their artistic visions come to life. Youth not only learned how to create an actual pair of skis — they then made their own pair and decorated them, all for an auction benefit that will fund the next set of Arts Street students.

Tutugirl Bamba, 19, one of eight participating youth, learned about Arts Street from her brother. She shared how amazing it is to know that someone may buying a pair of skis with her design printed on them.

Catisha McGuire lives in Knoxville and teaches younger generations how to channel negative emotions.  She said the gun was an outlet for that student.

“Obviously, the gun was too accessible to him,” McGuire said. “He needed that for some purpose or reason and he’s somehow picked up on that, that is something acceptable, which it should be not acceptable for that to even be thought of — bringing it to school.”

McGuire is the oldest of five kids and was raised by a single mother, and she said her upbringing had its challenges. She said they leaned on a community that gave them support.

This is why she decided to find a way to give back to society. Since she believes that art helps, she started teaching younger generations.

“Poetry is one of the main ways I’ve been working with children, youth, for like 20 years,” McGuire said. “Oh, it helps to just pour out every emotion that you feel is negative. Get everything that you think that how people may have stepped over your boundaries, get that out on paper.”

Antwoine Washington did not have much stability as a boy growing up in Pontiac, Michigan. He bounced from house to house, living with aunts and cousins while relying on his grandmother for support.

Washington used drawing to get through life’s darker periods. Reproducing his favorite cartoon characters — from Tiny Toons to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — soon flourished into a desire to perfect his craft.

Art’s power to heal and enlighten also inspired Washington to co-launch the Museum of Creative Human Art (MOCHA), a Cleveland nonprofit giving marginalized youth a safe space to create, learn and even start a career in the industry.

Washington founded MOCHA with friend and fellow Detroit native Michael Russell. The pair hung out as boys, working out together and playing basketball at the local community center. After reconnecting in Cleveland, they integrated Russell’s background in advising Black youth with Washington’s arts expertise to build a home for underserved students and young adults.

When “City as Studio” opens today in Hong Kong, it will mark the arrival of the biggest exhibition of graffiti art the city has ever seen. Arrayed across the shopping complex of K11 Musea are more than 100 works that track graffiti’s stunning trajectory, springing off the subways cars of New York and highways of Los Angeles to emerge as a global art and market force.

The show has as its curator Jeffrey Deitch, the artist, writer, and gallerist who isn’t just the latest guy to bring graffiti art to Hong Kong, but is quite likely the first.

Deitch, who grew tight with the genre’s leading artists in the mid 1970s when he moved to New York, had accompanied Dondi, Futura, and Zephyr to Hong Kong in 1982. The artists painted a parking garage, which eventually became the I Club, marking the Wild Style pioneers’s first-ever visit to Asia.

Showcasing the works of more than 100 artists, London’s Saatchi Gallery is hosting a brand new exhibition, exploring the impact of graffiti and street art across the world. Beyond the Streets London captures historic moments in this artistic movement.

“The unsanctioned, vandalist, rebellious nature of the movement is core to the show,“ explained Co-curator, Evan Pricco. "But it’s also how that has grown and how that has influenced the way that people do fashion, the way that people do photography, the way that people do music.”

An ever-evolving graffiti art display in Washington Heights is no more after the New York City Department of Transportation unceremoniously painted over it, sparking community outrage. In response, officials are now promising to work with artists to replace the display in the 1,000-foot-long tunnel famed for its graffiti art.“We are planning to look for potential artists that will design the 191st Street Tunnel. This is a priority for me because I understand the symbolic meaning behind this cultural mural,” NYC DOT commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez told the local ABC affiliate. Residents were shocked over the weekend to find that the colorfully painted tunnel had been whitewashed.“What happened here is just a slap in the face to the community,” local Luiggy Gomez told Gothamist. “They erased history.”

Technically called “Tunnel Street,” the three-block-long passage is the city’s only underground street, according to 6sqft. It serves as a Broadway entrance to the 191st Street subway station, which, at 175 feet underground, is the deepest in the system. It was built to provide an alternative to climbing up Fort George Hill to the other entrance on St. Nicholas Avenue, as the elevators are outside the far zone.

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Wild-style graffiti in popping bright colours, a bunch of photorealistic roses and a lofty trademark skull by Smug, one of Glasgow’s most celebrated street artists, adorn the outside walls around SWG3, a multi-purpose arts venue based in a collection of warehouses near the River Clyde.This former galvanisers’ yard is the site of the annual Yardworks festival, one of Europe’s biggest public art projects, and the centre of Glasgow’s street art renaissance. The trend is apparent around every street corner, from the tourist trails taking in the city centre’s popular gable-end murals to the intricate calligraphy of individual tags.The city council is exploring options for setting up legal walls where young people can develop their work without fear of arrest. Councillors are discussing how best to channel creative energies in an area that, according to the latest available figures, spent twice as much on graffiti removal as the second-placed council, Hackney in east London.