JENNIFER BURKE 

Jennifer founded Berkeley's Young Artist Workspace (YAWS) in 2000 after realizing there was an unmet need for affordable, accessible art instruction for children. Over the last decade, YAWS has provided a wide range of low-cost visual art classes to thousands of Berkeley children, ages 2 to 17. Jennifer's training as an art educator has evolved through her work in the creative laboratory of YAWS and her desire to design projects that highlight the innate creativity and artistic potential within every child. By providing excellent materials and superior tools, Jennifer has seen her YAWS students make an awe-inspiring collection of heartfelt art pieces. In addition to her work at YAWS, Jennifer is the Elementary School Art Specialist at Prospect Sierra School in El Cerrito where she has worked with K-3 students for the last 8 years. She also spent five years designing sets for two San Francisco childrenʼs musical theater companies and taught stage craft and set design to the participants of several childrenʼs theater groups. More recently, Jennifer has instigated several collaborative, guerilla art installations intended to give teenage artists a unique forum for artistic expression and activism. She also teaches adult art classes at Westside Studio.

Photo by Angela Lang