Brightly lit, modern and full of pops of color: tucked in the heart of Coolidge Corner lies an innovative art gallery with an inviting ambiance.

“Praise Shadows” art gallery offers a fresh perspective on art by highlighting the people who are typically less visible in the traditional art world. Describing itself as a hybrid space, the gallery emphasizes exhibitions by both emerging and mid-career artists.

Brookline high school alumna Yng-Ru Chen, who founded “Praise Shadows” in 2018, said she was inspired to open the gallery after seeing a gap in the art curating world that left out many of the people she worked with.

“I felt that there weren’t enough spaces showing the kinds of artists that I have been working with for so long,” Chen said. “I’d been thinking that Boston could use a space that showed interesting contemporary artists that haven’t been seen before.”

For emerging young artists, “Praise Shadows” offers a unique mentorship program that allows interns to curate their own gallery at the end of their six month internship, according to Chen.

Gallery • 4 Photos

CONTRIBUTED BY JAYNA MIKOLAITIS

"The Night in Bloom," by Oliver Jeffers shows a series of starry night paintings with colorful stars and swirling galaxies.

“[The interns] learn how to create lists for the exhibitions, how to install the shows and then take them down,” Chen said. “We also then connect them with a curator in Boston, and over the course of a few months, the curator takes them on trips to studios and museums and really teaches them about what it means to think and conceptualize. And then at the end of that experience, the interns have the opportunity to mount their own exhibition at the gallery.”

Sahara Curry (‘22) was one of the first people who participated in the “Praise Shadows’” mentorship program. Curry said the program let her grow as an artist while providing a space that listened to and valued her ideas.

“They gave me a bunch of opportunities and I got so much experience working there. Just through meeting all of these different types of people, I got a huge new perspective on the art world at an age when I was still figuring out myself as an artist,” Curry said. “It was one of the first times where I felt like my ideas were being taken seriously. I feel like when you’re a young Black girl in a predominantly white space like Brookline, you just always feel like you have to constantly prove yourself, and I felt like I didn’t really have to prove myself in this setting.”

Senior Ana Hernandez, another participant in the “Praise Shadows’” mentorship program, said that “Praise Shadows” cultivated a warm and welcoming atmosphere.

“It’s a very comfortable space for everyone. We are working a lot to fight the issues that female artists have in the art industry, such as not being shown as much or not being paid as much as men,” Hernandez said. “We’ve also had lots of artists of color in the past, and we have a lot of input from people of all different backgrounds.”

Chen said that it is important to provide such an opportunity to foster curating skills for youth in the Boston area, since it wasn’t often provided historically to emerging artists.

“The idea to start the program was completely based on my own experience. When I was in college, I had an internship at a gallery in Boston that paid zero dollars and, at the end, was basically free labor for the gallery, and it was neither educational nor enriching,” Chen said. “This mentorship program was really important to me because I wanted people in Boston to have an opportunity that is not just educational, but that pays them something and gives them connections to leaders in the art world.”

Curry said that seeing a space like “Praise Shadows” was inspiring because it signified change and progress.

“It was just really great to think about seeing this art gallery and this exhibit that was run by a woman of color actually being taken seriously,” Curry said. “I think the fact that the gallery exists is already a critique of the art world and it shows that things are going to change.”