When youth engage in creative arts, they become authors of new works and experience the possibilities of exercising the power of their own creative and critical thinking. Art is symbolic destruction ; it provides constructive outlets for normal aggressivity and vehicles for exploring the world. More than modes of expression, artistic media are also engaging modes of interpretation and learning. The cultural agents whom we feature here are models who can inspire more instructors and facilitators to promote youth development by sharing particular artistic training and anticipating rigorous results.

The goal of this volume is to inspire practitioners, advocates, policy professionals, and researchers interested in youth development through exemplary cases of art that has stimulated positive change in youth and in their general communities. Each case proposes novel scholarly and artistic projects for nonviolent social change, with the belief that creativity is vital to the health of democracies and that it is critical to the development of ethical, socially engaged, and resourceful citizens among our youth.

This is the 125th issue of New Directions for Youth Development the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series dedicated to bringing together everyone concerned with helping young people, including scholars, practitioners, and people from different disciplines and professions. The result is a unique resource presenting thoughtful, multi-faceted approaches to helping our youth develop into responsible, stable, well-rounded citizens.