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Dear YAX friends and supporters,
As 2019 winds down, at Youth Art Exchange, we are feeling inspired by everything we have accomplished this year with our amazing youth, staff, faculty artists, and growing advisory board. For nearly 2 decades, YAX didn’t have our own space. Then in 2018 we transformed a meat market in the Excelsior into our arts hub, [x]space and this summer launched YAX Studios at BGCSF. With these two spaces we have been able to serve more San Francisco public high school youth artists and community members than ever before through new exhibits, workshops, in-school residencies, after school classes, and drop in hours.
 At the end of this year, we are also saying goodbye to our incredible Executive Director, Reed Davaz McGowan. Reed joined YAX in 2013 (when we were still called Out of Site) and her vision and creative energy have guided YAX to grow and thrive through doubling our budget and the number of youth we serve each year, and now moving into our new locations. We will miss her dearly and are looking forward to her upcoming adventures in Oregon.
We are so excited to announce that Raffaella Falchi Macias will be our Executive Director starting in January. Raffaella is our Deputy Director and has worked at YAX for 13 years, and her artistic and programmatic visioning has shaped our organization into what it is today. YAX friends and family have gotten to know Raffaella over many years. From spearheading our design/build initiatives as our architecture faculty artist to teaching dance and bringing Carnaval to our students - and our students to Carnaval - Raffaella has been an artistic and programmatic visionary. She transitioned into program leadership as our Director of Programs and held that role for nearly a decade before becoming the Deputy Director earlier this year.
We are full of radical hope for YAX’s future. Celebrate the end of 2019 with us this Sunday December 8th at California College of the Arts for Radical Hope: 9th Annual San Francisco Youth Arts Summit, and say goodbye to Reed next Tuesday December 10th at the Dark Horse Inn at 7pm. And as the year comes to a close, please give a gift to YAX so we can continue the vital work of creating spaces for San Francisco public high school youth artists.
Together in art,
Mannie Ajayi
Youth Art Exchange Advisory Board Chair
Picture of YAX Staff by KB
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Green Art Workshop Artist Workshop Series: Sustainable Stitching with Beth Molnar
Happy Hour Send off! 
