The authors used qualitative methods to examine a high school summer arts program in the Midwest, and researched how the program promotes the creative and aesthetic development of students and teachers, as well as an appreciation for cultural and environmental diversity and conservation. We argue the program provides a space, both physical and emotional, where students could come together, recognize the power of community and collaboration in their lives, and engage in powerful creative work. This experience helped them recognize their own responsibility in creating cultural, environmental, and social awareness and change, and moved them toward becoming change agents in their own communities. (Contains 1 figure.)