Social Justice Art

Marit Dewhurst is the director of art education and assistant professor of art and museum education at City College of New York (CCNY), where she also directs City Art Lab, a free afterschool art program for teens. She completed her doctorate in education from Harvard University with an emphasis on youth arts and social justice education. She has worked as an educator and a program coordinator in multiple settings both nationally and abroad, including community centers, museums, juvenile detention centers, and international development projects. Prior to joining the faculty at CCNY, she founded and coordinated In the Making, the Museum of Modern Art’s free studio arts program for teens. Publications include chapters in several books on art in social justice education and articles in Equity & Excellence in Education, Journal of Art Education, and Harvard Educational Review.

In addition, she has co-curated an exhibition on traditional art and HIV/AIDS education in South Africa and a youth photography exhibition highlighting her work with Photo Exchangers, a cross-cultural education project in Ghana. Her research and teaching interests include social justice education, community-based art, youth empowerment, and the role of the arts in community development both locally and abroad. She is currently the principal investigator and founding advisor of Museum Teen Summit, a youth-led research and advocacy group for museum teen programs in New York City.