Boys & Girls Club of Palm Beach County is excited to announce an incredible award and opportunity for our photography program. Our Enhancement Instructor, Andrea Sarcos, and her photography students have been recently awarded the 2024 Photoville & PhotoWings Educator Exhibition Grant! This grant awards Andrea and her students the opportunity to have their work printed and displayed at the 2024 Photoville Event, an annual, city-wide open air photography festival in New York City that amplifies visual storytellers and connects them with a world-wide, diverse audience. The exhibit will be a retrospective of the past 5 years of photographs taken and collected during Ms. Andrea’s classes at our Clubs, showing the unique perspective of students growing up in south Florida. 

Out of the hundreds of youths who have studied photography with Ms. Andrea at BGCPBC, there are four individuals who she has continued to mentor as they’ve graduated high school and transitioned from being BGCPBC members to alumni. These students include, Tavon, Ackayla, Ayanna, & Ca’Nya, and their captured photographs will be the ones featured in the Photoville Exhibition. These five students have been perfecting their photography skills alongside Ms. Andrea for several years, as they were also participants in the National Geographic Photo Camp at the Archbold Biological Station in Venus, Florida, in 2022.

To ensure her students are afforded the opportunity to witness their own exhibit, Ms. Andrea is seeking to raise $6,800 to cover the costs of bringing these four alumni to the opening weekend of the Photoville Festival, in New York City, June 1-2, 2024. This trip will be a life-changing event for these young, aspiring photographers! They will get to see their work exhibited in person, connect with a diverse network of professionals in the field, and fully take in the Photoville experience with their own eyes. The trip will also include an educational photo tour of New York City. Ms. Andrea and her four students plan to film and photograph their Photoville experience to share it with Boys & Girls Club members, inspiring them to keep creating, and showing them that with hard work and dedication anything is possible.

Please consider making a generous donation to support these up-and-coming young adults who were once members of the Boys & Girls Clubs and are now passionate young-professionals, ready to take their art and careers to the next level and make a difference in their communities and families.

See below to make a tax-deductible donation. Please specify your gift is for the PHOTOVILLE FUNDRAISER. 

About Andrea Sarcos, the BGCPBC Photography Program, and Remarks by the Alumni:

Andrea Sarcos is a Venezuelan-American visual storyteller based in Boca Raton, Florida. Her matrilineal side is Ecuadorean, while her patrilineal side is Venezuelan. Her work focuses on issues surrounding identity, women, and migration. She uses the camera to preserve the present, understand the past, and glimpse the future. Andrea holds a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Photography and a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from the University of Florida. She is the lead photographic instructor with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County, where she has mentored and curated exhibitions of her students’ work since 2019.  As an artist in residence at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County, one of the ten largest Club organization in the United States, Andrea has worked with hundreds of students in the Clubs. Sharing her knowledge of photography, she sparked interest in many young kids who have learned how to use digital cameras, tell a story visually, create interesting portraits, and intentionally explore their communities.

BGCPBC Photography Program Highlights- 2019-2024 Contests & Awards:

-BGCA National Arts Contest Regional Winners 2020, 2021

-BGCA National Arts Contest National Winners 2020, 2023, 2024

-BGCA National Photography Competition National Best in Show 2021

-National Geographic Photo Camp 2022

-Water/Ways, Smithsonian Museum on Main Street Traveling Exhibit 2021

-US Congressional Arts Contest District 22 Winner 2021

-Zoe Loren Make A Difference Foundation Photography Competition 2023: 1st Place Winner (High School), 2nd Place Winner (Middle School)

-Black History Month Youth Awareness Art Contests 2023-2024: Multiple Winners in Elementary School & Middle School divisions

-Black Gold Jubilee, City of Belle Glade, FL 2023: 2nd & 3rd Place Winners

BGCPBC Exhibitions

-Life in the Glades, Dolly Hand Cultural Center, 2023 & 2024

-Imagemakers: BGCPBC, Lighthouse Art Center, 2022

-Imagemakers: BGCPBC, FAU 2019-2024

“Having grown up in a small, agricultural city, there is little to look forward to. However, I see the world differently after being introduced to photography and being behind the lens. My name is Ca’Nya Osborn, and without attending the Boys & Girls Club of Palm Beach County, I would never have gained as many opportunities and experiences. I had been attending since I was in Kindergarten. As of now, I am 20 years old, and I am currently majoring in elementary education. Growing up, I was always the person to record, take pictures, and capture the moment because you never know when you may need to revisit these memories. Overall, I want to impact the world and my community positively, and with photography more adventure awaits me.” –Ca’Nya Osborn, 20

“Hi my name is Ackayla, I’m 18 and I’m from West Palm Beach, FL. I’m a baker’s apprentice in the Publix bakery. What I’m passionate about is animals and just helping them live a better life and showing the world that if you put your mind to it and be consistent then there’s more to come. A big goal I’ve achieved recently was buying myself a car. Yes a car does come with a lot of extra expenses but how I handle them is by having an emergency savings if anything happens. One of my future goals is to pass all my science classes in college to achieve my dream of becoming a veterinarian. Besides all that I really enjoy photography because it shows you how one picture can have more than one side to its story.” –Ackayla Patterson, 18

Ayanna Graham has been going to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County since she was five years old. Ayanna worked as a Junior Program Assistant at the Clubs’ Smith & Moore Family “Career Readiness” Teen Center in Belle Glade, Florida. She is a student at Palm Beach State College. To her friends and family, Ayanna was always the girl who would capture the moments you’d never want to forget. Her love for photography began at a very young age, and she entered her first photography competition in eighth grade. At the age of 15, advanced photography training at the Teen Center with teaching artist Andrea Sarcos opened her eyes to a whole new world. In 2021, Ayanna’s “The Future is Bright” photo was awarded the BGCA ImageMakers Best in Show award, the top national honor. In 2022, Ayanna was once again in the running for a national award with her photo, “The Seed of Intention.” -Ayanna Graham

Tavon was born and raised in Delray Beach, Florida. His love for photography quickly grew when he joined the Boys & Girls Clubs’ photography program with teaching artist Andrea Sarcos. His passion for catching ephemeral moments is evident in his focus on portrait photography. For Tavon, the most fascinating thing about photography is its enchanting capacity to capture a moment in time and preserve feelings and memories. In the future, he hopes to establish a career by sharing his distinct viewpoint and documenting the beauty of life in all of its forms. In 2021, Tavon Henry’s photo, “We Made It,” was chosen by jurors of Florida District 22 as the winner of the U.S. Congressional Arts Contest; the framed print was hung in the U.S. Capitol for one year. -Tavon Henry