This is a handbook designed to be used by people who want to create a space for youth cultural production. It is based on our exploration that began in June 2012, which included the launch of our first open studio class at Yollocalli Arts Reach called Experimental Sound Open Studio. Our primary inquiry was focused on how to take a model of an existing drop-in teen technology program and modify it to create open studio art courses. We wanted to invent a program where teaching artists became collaborative learning partners with youth. This was perhaps our greatest challenge. During the course of our investigation we found that we were heavily influenced by our experience as traditional classroom art teachers, but we were strongly motivated by our mutual belief in the power of youth as public intellectuals.

HOMAGO (Hang Out, Mess Around & Geek Out) is an experiential learning theory based on research by Mimi Ito on how youth learn in new and social media environments. Our goal was to explore how HOMAGO could be applied within a space of cultural production and how we could translate it into a method that would be useable by our teaching artists.

This handbook was produced by the Yollocalli Arts Reach with the cooperation of the Hive Chicago Learning Network and the National Museum of Mexican Art and with support from the Digital Youth Network and New Urban Arts.