The student-led AAPI Organization based in Silicon Valley hosted “Emerging Visions: A Youth Art Showcase” at the Los Altos History Museum on Monday, which hosted 11 art pieces created by local youth.

The show gave young artists ranging from elementary to high schoolers a chance to showcase their experiences with their culture, according to Audrey Fan, Los Altos High School junior and co-chair of the AAPI organization.

“It was really interesting to see all the different cultural nuances of the artists, because this event is meant to be a cultural event that’s showcasing these artists’ diverse experiences,” Amiee Ge, a member of the AAPI organization, said.

AAPI Silicon Valley aims to cultivate identity and pride by engaging Asian-American Pacific Islander youth leaders, with goals to create platforms for AAPI voices, collaborate with local AAPI groups, challenge preconceptions about AAPI and fight for education on the diverse history of AAPI. 

“The mission of our organization is to cultivate pride in identity through engaging and elevating the next generation of AAPI youth leaders and youth leaders in general,” Fan said. “We wanted this event to allow youth to gain confidence and to gain the skills to share their voices, and share their work with other people.” 

Los Altos High junior Olivia Moon, who showcased a few of her art pieces, said she wanted to contribute to the show’s goal of representing culture. 

“[My friend] reached out to me over text, and then I filled out the form on impulse, but I’m glad I did because everything looks really great,” Moon said. “I’m not part of the organization, but in any way I can contribute, I’d love to.”

In the future, the AAPI organization hopes to organize more events to unite cultures and elevate voices. 

“Through these events, we’re really pushing out diversity of views and experiences,” Ge said. “The events that we end up holding … is what really helps us get to our goal of just elevating Asian-American and Pacific-Islander voices and other cultural voices that might not be heard as much in the media these days.”