Arts Education for Native Youth
We bring the arts and so much more to Native youth!
Native Performing Arts Network provides Native youth with holistic, culturally grounded performing arts experiences that strengthen identity, confidence, and creative leadership. NPAN delivers Indigenous-designed curriculum taught by Native artists that build skills in the performing arts while integrating college prep, career and technical education (CTE), wellness, and cultural learning — all while expanding access through summer camps, in-school programs, and virtual workshops with national partners. By centering Native knowledge and creating pathways into the arts, NPAN supports the next generation of Native storytellers and ensures that youth from urban, rural, and under-resourced communities have meaningful opportunities to learn, create, and lead.
Spring Break Scenic Workshop
Set Design & Construction with Tyler Buswell
March 23–March 26, 2026
10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Native Performing Arts Network invites students to this FREE Set Design and Construction Workshop. Students will explore the process of scenic design, from developing a concept to constructing the set—and then learn about tool safety so they can build and paint a scenic element!
Tyler Buswell is the Technical Director at Northwest Academy and has designed sets for Native Performing Arts Network, Portland Center Stage, and many others.
Portland State University & Northwest Academy in Portland, OR.
FREE and open to all students ages 12-24, with priority given to Native students.
No experience necessary.
Questions?
Contact Tanis Parenteau, Outreach Coordinator: (925) 609-4901
tanis@nativetheaterproject.org
Native Theater Project is now Native Performing Arts Network, which more accurately reflects the full scope of the organization’s aims and work.
Summer Camp Indigenized!
Every summer, we bring Native students, primarily from reservation communities, to a college campus for a sleepaway summer camp to explore the performing arts and prepare for college. Our holistic camp focuses on the performing arts, college and career prep, health and wellness, and cultural activities.
We're building the program we wish we'd had as kids! Our program is designed and led by Indigenous education experts and Native professional artists.
We see it every year — kids who just blossom, with self-confidence, with the ability to tell their own stories, and with excitement to help their peers share their stories. Stories like these, of their own experiences, are sorely lacking in mainstream circles.