Mission
The Ana & Adeline Foundation is invested in the emerging YAYA artist community through resources for advancing their individual careers and personal ambitions as artists.
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The Ana & Adeline Foundation is an independent charitable organization that complements YAYA’s programs by providing resources to support YAYA artists and alumni in advancing their professional development and fulfilling their personal artistic goals. The foundation's Creative Work Grant and Scholarship Program funds activities such as university level education, travel, internships, creative ventures, and professional development opportunities.
History
The Ana & Adeline Foundation was established in 2011 by Jana Napoli, who also founded the nonprofit teaching design studio YAYA (Young Aspirations/Young Artists). YAYA, which was founded in 1988, has worked with thousands of young artists in New Orleans over the past three decades. The Foundation offers grants and professional development opportunities to the extensive YAYA community – the young people who are currently active in YAYA programs as well as the alumni who now live across the nation. The Foundation seeks to complement YAYA’s programs by making possible individual pursuits – such as university level education, travel, internships, and creative ventures – that help artists realize their personal aspirations.
The first YAYA artists (from top left, clockwise) Skip Boyd, Carlos Neville, Dexter Stewart, Fred Dennis, Darlene Francis, Brian McMillian, Lionel Milton, and Darryl White with their chairs, 1990.
Photo credit – Michael P. Smith
The Ana & Adeline Foundation is made possible through the generosity of Jana Napoli, who as an artist, has had the chance to travel the world and immerse herself in diverse creative communities. She has lived in Guatemala, Mexico, France, Japan, Poland and many other nations where she has worked with artists in those places. She was raised in New Orleans in an Afro-Caribbean household by two formidable women neither of whom had a formal education. Ana Napoli was her Caribbean mother and Adeline Edwards was her African American mother figure. In their spirit and for the gifts these women gave her, Jana Napoli’s vision is to provide further education and grand opportunities for the artists who have participated in YAYA.
Ana Napoli and Adeline Edwards, fishing together in 1981.