Program offers 200 Detroit students arts-related summer jobs
High School participants in Live Coal’s 2025 SAET program. PHOTO COURTESY OF LIVE COAL
Up to 200 Detroit high school students aged 14 to 17 will receive hands-on arts training and work experience through a paid summer arts job this summer thanks to the Summer Arts Employment Training (SAET) program.
SAET is led by Heritage Works in partnership with Detroit Excellence in Youth Arts (DEYA), Grow Detroit’s Young Talent (GDYT) and 10 arts partners working across Detroit to provide creative training and paid workforce opportunities.
“Detroit’s youth have tremendous creative talent and potential,” said Nafeesah Symonette, executive director, DEYA. “Through the leadership of Heritage Works and our community arts partners, we are connecting young people with opportunities to gain meaningful work experience while developing their artistic skills.”
Array of opportunities
Detroit youth will have opportunities to gain experience in dance, visual arts, technical theater, youth-led arts education, or arts activism – while also developing workplace skills including teamwork, communication, entrepreneurism, and project management.
LSODance Company is one of the ten SAET sites PHOTO COURTESY OF Kennikki Jones Jones
SAET arts partners are Artlab J, Detroit City Dance, Detroit-Windsor Dance Academy, Jit Masters, Live Coal, LSODance, Mint Artists Guild, Motor City Street Dance Academy, Que Blackout Youth Theater, and W.I.S.E. Partnership.
“Talent is abundant, but access isn’t,” said AJ Lockett, founder, Que Blackout Youth Theater, which teaches technical theater and production.
“SAET allows us to provide access to those talented youth in the city who often are left out by allowing them to have a much-needed summer job, while allowing them to follow their passions and learn real job skills through the arts.”
Awesome summer job opportunity
Funding for the initiative comes from a State of Michigan MiLEAP out-of-school time grant and the Grow Detroit’s Young Talent (GDYT) program, which provides paid summer employment opportunities for Detroit youth. The program will run from late June through mid-August.
“The arts are the blueprint for how we communicate, problem-solve, and lead, and that translates directly into careers,” added Barbara Kellom, Executive Director, W.I.S.E. Partnership. “SAET is proof that what lives in these young people has value, and that creativity can translate into employment.”
The application for SAET is a two-part process:
Youth interested in participating must apply to GDYT and meet GDYT eligibility requirements, including being a Detroit resident and currently enrolled in high school or recently graduated. Students must be accepted into GDYT and can apply for summer employment by clicking here.
Vital requirements
Students should simultaneously apply to the SAET program. Participation requires acceptance into SAET and selection by one of the program’s partner sites.
To be considered for SAET, students must also complete the SAET Interest Form by clicking here. Selected applicants may be invited to participate in an audition or interview, held either in person or virtually.
Interest forms will be reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis until all positions are filled.
