Ten teenagers gathered at The Frank gallery in Pembroke Pines for its monthly Teen Art Club. Four had participated previously and six were newbies who were ready to take on an art project for the class on Friday, Sept. 20, led by artist and educator Melanie Oliva.
Oliva, who has been working as an art educator since 2019 at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami through its teen outreach programs now collaborates with The Frank as the facilitator of the teen art program. The Frank is The Frank C. Ortis Art gallery, named after the mayor of Pembroke Pines who was elected in 2004. He retired in 2024.
The monthly art club invites local teens, ages 13 to 16, to participate in an afterschool art class where they can work on a different art project each month with supplies included. The class, according to Oliva, is meant to encourage teens to create art in an educational space where they can express themselves creatively and without judgment.
“The Frank gallery reached out to me in 2022 for a solo exhibition, and I fell in love with everyone there,” says Oliva. “Then I found out they have a wonderful space on the second floor that wasn’t being utilized as much as I thought it could be.
So, with my background in teaching teens at MOCA, I asked if I could be a teaching artist there.
Oliva says that she learned the gallery had been considering expanding their programming.
“So, I was just kind of in the right place at the right time,” she says.
individual takes on an artistic theme during a past Teen Art Club class.
Photo courtesy of The Frank C. Ortis Art Gallery
Since 2022, the Teen Art Club has been meeting on the third Friday of the month from August through May, excluding December for the holidays. Cost is only $5 for a session.
Attendance to each class is not mandatory so teens can RSVP for any upcoming class they would like to attend. Many of the teens do attend every class, however, and might only miss one or two throughout the year, says Oliva.
In the past, the project for each class was done with a certain theme in mind for that month while also incorporating different kinds of art materials such as clay, paint, textiles, and more into each class, explains Oliva.
“The first year, we did a lot of different projects while focusing on different themes each month, like Native American Heritage Month, Human Rights Month, Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Autism Acceptance Month, and Jewish American Heritage Month. I also try to alternate materials for each class, especially if the kids aren’t getting much art programming in their schools, so they can experiment with different types of materials,” says Oliva.
Now, however, the facilitator has switched the focus to an overarching theme for the year with each class offering a different project dedicated to that theme. This year’s theme is the environment and how to create art sustainably.
During the September class, Oliva had the teens focus on creating something that focused on the clothing industry. More specifically, how fast fashion negatively impacts the environment, which ties into this year’s overall theme of creating art sustainably. Oliva partnered with her friends and artists Kerry Phillips and Susan Caraballo, who started The Things Lab.
Through their Miami-based thrift store, Phillips and Caraballo collect materials and objects diverted from landfills to resell them to be repurposed. For their most recent art project, Oliva tasked her students with using discarded scraps of swimsuit fabric she got from The Things Lab.
Teen Art Club’s monthly classes.
Along with the fabric scraps, Oliva provided the teens with a variety of materials they could use to create their art project, including hot glue, canvas, yarn, twine, paint, scissors, and construction paper. After a brief PowerPoint presentation about the impact of fast fashion on the environment and ways to shop more sustainably, Oliva encouraged the students to use any of the materials at their disposal to create something new. The most surprising result of each class, however, is how each student takes a different direction with their art project, says Oliva.
One of the students used a variety of pink, black, and white palm tree-printed fabrics with yarn and hot glue to create an entirely new piece of clothing – a skirt. Tenth grader Rachel Robinson, who has been attending the class for almost a year, worked with a similar pink, white, and black geometric fabric, a cardboard disc, and a neon yellow bathing suit string to make a lampshade for her bedroom.
“I’ve been interested in art since kindergarten. But I haven’t really been interested in participating in the art program at my high school because we’ve had so many different art teachers . . . So, when my mom heard about this class, I was excited to be in an art class without all that pressure,” says the Pembroke Pines-based teen.
Robinson isn’t the only student who has thrived since joining the Teen Art Club. Miami Lakes resident and eighth grader Rene Romero, who is on the autism spectrum, not only found a safe place to express himself but also his voice. “He wasn’t speaking two years ago,” says his mother, Sofia Diaz Granados. “Now, he’s talking to other students, and he’s even gotten involved in other activities at school. This class has given him a chance to open up and grow. He’s even started doing art at home now.”
For Romero, the class gave him a chance to explore his love of art further, which is something he’s always had a deep interest in, he explains. “I wanted to take part in this club because I really like it, and I wanted to learn more about art,” he says.
At the end of each class, the teens are invited to present their work. At this class, Romero shared his work with everyone for the first time. Using various colors of swimsuit fabric and canvas, he created a beach scene dotted with palm trees.
“The classes get better every year, and attendance keeps growing. We have a maximum limit of 20 students, and there are many times when we’re completely full,” says Oliva.
She says that many friendships have been made and the accessibility of the class makes it welcoming for neurodivergent teens.
“Art is about the process, so I want the work to come from them and for each of them to feel good about it and to build confidence. It’s a very supportive environment that we have here.”
IF YOU GO
WHAT : Teen Art Club
WHERE: The Frank at the Charles F. Dodge City Center, 601 City Center Way, Pembroke Pines
WHEN: 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., third Friday of every month, through May 2025. The next session is Friday, Oct. 18.
COST : $5 per student, non-refundable. Advanced registration is required.
INFORMATION: (954) 392-2120 or
thefrankgallery.org
