Transition as ‘becoming’ through Danish and English youth arts programmes

Much public consciousness of youth transitions is imbued with deficit portraits of a generation at risk that lacks well-being and that is often not actively pursuing the path to an independent adulthood. Engaging in open dialogue with young people demonstrates a reality far from these figures of failure, revealing the highly complex transition work that ‘becoming an adult’ implies. Our project explored what kind of transition experiences marginalized young people valued in art programmes and what these experiences tell us about marginalized young people’s transitions today. This article recounts three shared transition experiences across different groups of marginalized young people in Denmark and England. Firstly, the negotiation of adulthood, whereby young people experienced new responsibilities but also opportunities to speak back to deficit narratives; Secondly, the negotiation of future work life, where young people valued the development of contemporary work skills through the programmes; Finally, and most important for the young participants, an orientation for care for themselves and others within their communities as key facilitators of transitions. We conclude that the third shared transition experience is an important orientation stemming from how young people reflect on their experiences of youth arts programmes in supporting their transitions to adulthood.