Joe’s Movement Emporium is a small art house in Mount Rainier, Maryland, but its apprenticeship programs has helped young adults learn the skills they need to make a living in the arts, both on and off stage, with audio and visual skills that translate in a variety of ways.
A new federal grant will help Joe’s bring out the artistic creativity of young adults in a more modern way — through digital media.
Over the next four years, the Labor Department will provide Joe’s with over $3 million to launch its CreativeWorks Digital Media Apprenticeship.
“Everybody needs digital media right now to tell stories,” said Brooke Kidd, the executive director of Joe’s Movement Emporium.
The new program will provide skills and career pathways in a lot of different directions, just like Joe’s has done throughout its roughly 30 years in operation.
“Our young adults need support to be better communicators in the digital age, confidence to be ready for careers, and they need people to walk on the path to help them access the resources to build wealth in their future,” Kidd said.
Some of those who have gone through the programs at Joe’s, mastering the skills they needed for a career in the arts, include August Easley and Otoniel Hernandez.
“I have learned so many life skills,” Hernandez said. “I have learned, not only digital media, but also how to be a professional.”
In fact, Hernandez is now the digital media team lead at Joe’s.
“I’ve been able to push myself outside of bounds that I’ve known before,” Easley said. “I tend to just stay to myself and work by myself and just do things that I’m comfortable with. But being here, it’s like they put me in roles that I’m not used to.”
The grant was earned on a competitive basis by Joe’s.
“It allows them to connect the arts with the changes in technology and integrate those in their creative endeavors,” said Rep. Glenn Ivey, who was there to celebrate with a giant check. “It’s a phenomenal opportunity for young people to get a taste of what they can do in the future.”
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