Alumni Webinar with Rachel Barnard, Executive Director and Founder of Young New Yorkers in New York, USA.

Don't miss the final installment of our semester two online Architecture Alumni Talk series featuring Rachel Barnard - Executive Director and Founder of Young New Yorkers in New York, USA.

Watch: Architecture Alumni Talk Series with Rachel Barnard

About the Rachel Barnard

Young New Yorkers (YNY) was established by artist and designer Rachel G. Barnard, M.S. in 2012 with a mission to use art to transform the criminal legal system through the creative voices of young New Yorkers. Since the organization was established, over 1,500 young people (ages 16-25) have been sentenced by NY State Courts to make art in YNY programs rather than be sentenced to serve jail time or other adult sanctions. Young adults sentenced to YNY use art to become advocates for themselves and for criminal legal reform. Each program culminates in a participant-led public art project that addresses a criminal legal issue of their choice to which participants invite the very criminal legal professionals involved in their sentencing. This humanizes the culture of the courtrooms, the professional members of which possess discretionary power over each young person’s case outcome.

Barnard is responsible for the overall success of the organization, including creative direction, program development, and fundraising. She led the collaborative development of YNY’s program curricula and built sustainable partnerships with key criminal legal partners, and has been facilitating YNY programs since its founding.

Barnard is a social practice artist formally trained as an architect. She is the NYC Public Artist in Residence with the Department of Probation, a fellow at A Blade of Grass, and a 2019 recipient of the League Prize. She holds a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Architecture from The University of Queensland with Honors.