In 1961 the Council for the Arts in Education (CFAE) was founded and Youth Arts Month is one of their National Initiatives. The National Arts Education Association (NAEA) is their primary sponsor. The US Virgin Islands are registered as a participating region and each region has aco-chair. For the past 15 years, the Youth Art Month celebrations have been spearheaded by Niarus Walker, art teacher at Central High School in St. Croix as well as Maria Stiles, a former art educator, artist and youth arts advocate.

The St. Croix student art exhibition has been hosted by CHANT (Crucian Heritage and Nature Tourism) in historic Fredriksted. Expansion of the YAM celebrations to St. Thomas began in 2019 at the VICouncil on the Arts, and has since made it’s home at the Virgin Islands Children’s Museum, sine 2020. We are a community bursting with talent and our team aims to provide opportunities and acknowledgement for our student artist so they may have brighter and more creative futures!