Juxtaposition Arts (JXTA) is a youth-powered social enterprise and community-rooted art and design center. The JXTA campus anchors a commercial corridor in North Minneapolis in a neighborhood that is home to the highest youth population in Minnesota, where residents also experience health, education, political, and economic disparities that are the result of decades of public and private disinvestment. JXTA is committed to economic justice by employing youth and adult artists and designers in JXTALabs social enterprises and connecting the creative genius of North Minneapolis to the larger regional economy.

 

Through GENERATIVE Juxtaposition Arts transformed a vacant underutilized building on its campus into a new Community Design and Fabrication Studio where youth and young adults will work alongside architects, artists, organizers and planners on client projects that animate public space and make decision making processes more transparent to residents. The Community Design Studio accelerates JXTA’s growth towards becoming the largest employer of youth in the city. GENERATIVE deepens and maximizes opportunities for youth to gain real world skills and experiences through the production of murals, public art and community engagement through tactical urbanism:  activating public space like sidewalks, streets and parks, through art making, beautification, conversation, problem solving, play and community building.