Apple has announced Apple Creative Studios, a global initiative that will provide career-building mentorship, professional industry skills training, creative resources, and access to Apple’s full product lineup of iPhone, iPad, and Mac to underrepresented communities across the globe.
Creative Studios will launch first in Los Angeles and Beijing, followed by Bangkok, London, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. later this year. In each city, Apple will work hand-in-hand with nonprofit community organizations to connect youth with mentors and established artists.
The tech giant says Today at Apple Creative Studios programming will hone creative passion in areas such as music, film, photography, and art and design. It will be available to young people who face barriers to meaningful artistic education.
Across eight to 12 weeks of programming, mentors — in collaboration with Apple and community partners — will take participants through a curriculum of hands-on sessions, insider industry knowledge, and provide ongoing feedback on participants’ creative projects. Alongside developing creative skills, Apple says its mentors and community partners will nurture participants’ self-expression and encourage them to spark social change within their own communities. At the end of programming, Apple will host a celebration and showcase of participants’ final works in their local Apple Store location or within the community.
“Creativity and access to education are core values for Apple, so we are absolutely thrilled to kick off Today at Apple Creative Studios in Los Angeles and Beijing and to bring this meaningful program to several more cities this year,” said Deirdre O’Brien, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail + People.“Building on our long history of using stores as a venue to host local artists to educate and inspire, Creative Studios is one more way we’re providing free arts education to those who need it most.”
Today at Apple will also offer public sessions open to anyone, led by the artists who are providing mentorship experiences to the young participants in Today at Apple Creative Studios. Everyone is invited to register for these sessions at apple.com/today.
Regarding the accompanying image: In Los Angeles, young creatives will receive mentorship from Grammy Award-winning producer Larrance “Rance” Dopson, documentary photographer and filmmaker Bethany Mollenkof, and Apple Music’s Global Editorial Head of Hip-Hop and R&B Ebro Darden.
