Yamileth “Yami” Barbosa is currently a Senior at Arlington High School who was chosen to attend a life changing art camp. She is involved in AP Art classes and is working towards her art portfolio. Yami’s art portfolio expresses her experiences as a minority child of separated parents and the difficulties of connecting with her family that lives in Mexico. She is also working on constructing 3D pieces that start as 2D sketches and are transformed using various materials like wood or foam. Outside of school Yami does ballet and contemporary dance. Ms.Barbosa began her love of the arts at a young age by taking dance. She describes dance as her “first love”, but as she grew older, her love for other art forms grew. “I was always pretty good at art, but I never really got too deep into it until I was in middle school where I had a really good teacher in eighth grade. That encouragement really helped push me”, Barbosa explained. She continued her passion for art in high school where, after a series of interviews and a review of her portfolio, Yami was selected to attend the Inaugural year of Contemporary Art Memphis Summer Fellowship.

Contemporary Arts Memphis, or CAM, is an organization that allows incoming tenth through twelfth grade students to stay in Memphis for three weeks and take courses at the University of Memphis. These courses are taught by multiple professors at Memphis and consisted of ceramics, print making, painting, and drawing. “Ceramics was definitely the class where we got to experiment the most. We got to get our hands dirty… It was definitely my favorite class”. Yami was also able to go on an all expense paid trip to New York for a week. In New York she toured museums, went to studios and galleries, and met artists. “We really got to see the New York culture”. While at camp, Yami did not have access to her phone which gave her an opportunity to connect with other artists around the city that shared the same interests as her, “you bond with these people in a way that you don’t really get to bond with other people”. Yami still keeps in touch with many of the friends that she made while she was at camp and helps them with their artwork and visits with them often. A few months after CAM had ended, they had an award ceremony for all who attended. At this ceremony Yami Barbosa received the 2022 CAM Community Resource Award. Yami explained that this award is given to the person that is admired throughout the program for their contribution to the betterment of students at CAM.

In reflection of her time at camp, Yami said that it allowed her to realize that “an artistic career is definitely possible. It’s not exclusive to ‘the elites’, it’s for everyone”. She got to expound on her love for art in ways she didn’t think was possible, and test her skills as an artists. Overall, Yami Barbosa loved her experience at CAM. Contemporary Arts Memphis allowed Yami Barbosa to see more possibilities regarding a future career in art and broaden her horizon.