A Year in Isolation Reception

Youth Mental Health is a group show featuring works from various Bay Area teenagers curated by Advocacy Through Art. Advocacy Through Art is a youth run, nonprofit organization dedicated to using art as a medium to facilitate conversations regarding important issues in the community. Through our own experience living through the COVID-19 pandemic, we have found ourselves using art to express our feelings of isolation, joy, frustration, etc. Our show hopes to bring light to youth mental health during the pandemic as well as provide a platform for student artists to showcase their works. With this show, we aim to lessen the stigma around youth mental health by using art as a way to spread awareness, foster important conversations, and hopefully provide students with a light from which they can regain happier lives.

Huge thank you to our sponsors Palo Alto Art Center, Pacific Art League and Thinkfund. Without their support this show would not have been possible. Additionally, we are immensely grateful to all of our student artists who submitted work and were vulnerable with us. Be sure to check out the show across both our locations, Palo Alto Art Center and Pacific Art League, and visit our website at advocacythroughart.org. We hope you walk away with a better understanding about how the pandemic has impacted youth mental health. Thank you for visiting.

Youth Mental Health in Palo Alto

Silicon Valley, as the center of the tech world, has long been known for its tremendous innovation and educational opportunities. Start-ups are constantly pushing the boundaries on how we can learn most effectively, and the world of technology is always surrounding us. Palo Alto’s high schools serve as the convergences of everything Silicon Valley has to offer, and while the resources we have at our fingertips are incredible, the intense academic environment that results puts even more pressure on teens who are already facing stressful college processes or job markets.

While many residents are aware of the tragic deaths of Palo Alto high school students by suicide, the daily mental struggle of teenagers in Silicon Valley along with its root causes often remains undiscussed. With the standard goings of high school experiences being stripped away this year - not just hallmarks like prom and graduation, but the daily rejuvenation of socializing and forming personal connections - on top of the grief that ubiquitously accompanies the COVID-19 pandemic, we high school students have especially found ourselves struggling mentally. Being isolated with our families and staring at screens all day has led to many of us suffering silently.