Artist Academy designed to help teens hone their creative talents individually and collectively

EAU CLAIRE — B.J. Hollars launched the Midwest Artist Academy in part because he knows good things happen when young people create as a group.

“I’m thinking about growing up with brothers and friends, where we would put on a play for our parents or a magic show or whatever silly thing we would create collectively. It was always such a passion driven pursuit,” said Hollars, founder-director of the academy, UW-Eau Claire associate professor of English and a Leader-Telegram columnist. “And I’ve seen that with my own students, I’ve seen that as a camp counselor. Whenever you have to do a last-minute talent show or song around a campfire, or whatever it might be, people always rise to the occasion. It just creates a different kind of electricity, I think.”