OUR PROGRAMS
Boyle Heights Arts Conservatory offers free creative programs that support skill-building, career exploration, and pathways to opportunity across arts, media, and creative technology. Our programs meet. Our programs meet people where they are and support growth through hands-on learning, mentorship, and real-world experience.
Workforce & Reentry
Hands-on training and structured pathways that support justice-impacted youth and young adults as they build skills, confidence, and creative career direction.
Mural Workforce Academy (MWA)
Por Vida Media Youth Collective gives young people ages 14–24 the tools and space to explore broadcasting, podcasting, photography, beat-making, and digital media,while claiming their voice and telling their story without compromise.
Discover authentic you.
Bridge Academy Movement (BAM)
Reentry Through Workforce™
BAM provides justice-impacted youth with paid internships and workforce navigation that connect them to careers in the creative industries. As BHAC’s Reentry Through Workforce™ program, BAM creates pre-release training and post-release earn-and-learn opportunities that support youth as they return to and thrive in our shared communities
Juvenile Justice Initiative
The Juvenile Justice Initiative delivers healing-centered arts and media programming inside LA County Camps, Halls, and JDRCs. Youth build creative and technical skills in music, digital media, and visual arts while preparing to continue their journey through BHAC’s Bridge Academy Movement (BAM), where they access paid internships and workforce navigation after release.
Building skills, igniting futures.
Media ARts
& PRODUCTION
Creative media programs focused on storytelling, music, broadcasting, and live production—supporting technical skill-building and authentic creative expression.
Por Vida Media Youth Collective
Por Vida Media Youth Collective gives young people ages 14–24 the tools and space to explore broadcasting, podcasting, photography, beat-making, and digital media, while claiming their voice and telling their story without compromise.
Discover authentic you.
SessionsLA
Guides artists ages 13–24 through year-long music projects, recording, live performances, and professional development.
Find your sound, shape your path
Native American & Indigenous (NAI) Media Arts
Honoring tradition, shaping creative futures
Honoring tradition, shaping creative futures. Provides youth ages 14–24 with culturally rooted, year-round training in media arts and storytelling, while introducing professional pathways in creative industries.
PODPALS
Voices that connect, stories that travel
Pod Pals is inspired by old-school pen pals, where young people (ages 8-13) learn to record, edit, and share their voices through episodes created with BHAC’s mentors, femtors, and themtors, streaming on Spotify and recorded monthly at KQBH 101.5FM.
Community Creativity
& Engagement
Free, community-centered programs that bring people together through art, storytelling, and shared creative experiences across ages and neighborhoods.
Cartoons & Cereal
Two Scoops of Fun
One of BHAC’s original programs, Cartoons & Cereal brings families and community members together on the last Saturday of each month to enjoy a classic cartoon, a free cereal buffet, and hands-on drawing workshops with professional artists who also share pathways into animation and cartooning careers.
Dungeons & Dragons
Since 2017, BHAC hosts free Dungeons & Dragons campaigns for youth (13–17) and adults, making us the only ongoing, no-cost D&D program in Northeast Los Angeles, fostering creativity, problem-solving, and community through collaborative storytelling
Roll into your next adventure
OPEN
LA
OpenLA is BHAC’s gallery and classroom extension space in Boyle Heights, designed as a gathering hub for exhibitions, performances, film screenings, gaming, speaker series, and workshops that showcase the talents of emerging and established artists while bringing our communities together.
Gather, Glow, and Show
Boyle
Heights Youth Festival
BHYFest is LA County’s only youth-led festival, drawing thousands to First Street each summer for live music, art, sports, community resources, and plenty of paletas. All 100% free and open to everyone.
For youth, by youth
Professional Development & Consulting Hub
Training, workshops, and consulting for educators, organizations, and agencies seeking culturally responsive, healing-centered, and arts-based approaches.
Restorative Cultural Arts (RCA)
Restorative Cultural Arts (RCA) is BHAC’s signature framework, developed with cultural practitioner Omar G. Ramírez. Offered as a professional service, RCA integrates arts-based healing, restorative practice, and cultural traditions into paid trainings, workshops, and consulting for educators, nonprofits, and corporations, equipping teams to foster authentic engagement, equity, and lasting transformation.
Transforming education and organizations through cultural arts praxis.
School Partnerships
BHAC collaborates with school districts to expand arts and media access, offering one day workshops, year-long programs, guest speakers, and consulting for on-campus TV and podcast studios, helping schools fulfill California’s arts education commitments while preparing students for future careers.
Bringing industry-standard arts into schools
Partners & Funders
Our work is made possible through the collaboration and investment of partners who share our commitment to equity in arts and creative workforce development .
