The ApprenticeshipReal commissions are real training.
Nosreme pairs university art students with established artists on actual paid projects. Not coffee runs and filing. The work itself: making public art, in public, with the community it's for.
Why it exists
How it works
It's already happened
Art school teaches craft. What it rarely teaches is how a public commission actually happens: the community meetings, the budget, the install, the day a neighborhood picks up brushes and paints beside you.
The apprenticeship closes that gap. We bring a student onto a live Nosreme commission as a working collaborator, beside a senior artist, on a real timeline, for real pay. They leave with something a classroom can't give: a finished public work, a professional credit, and the experience of doing it for real.
Pairing
We match a student with a senior artist on a commission that fits their medium and interests.
Inside the process
The student is part of the real work: community meetings, design, fabrication, and install.
Leading a moment
Apprentices take real ownership, often leading community engagement like a paint day.
Paid & credited
Apprentices are paid for their work and credited on the finished commission. Compensation varies by project.
A Morgan State artist led the paint day.
On the Henrietta Lacks mural, we worked with a Morgan State University artist as an apprentice. She was paid for her work, and she led Community Paint Day, guiding neighbors of all ages as they painted Henrietta’s story into the brick.
See the project →Two ways in
Whether you want to apprentice or you want to send your students, start here.
You want the experience
If you're an art student in or near Baltimore, reach out. We don't run a fixed application window. We build the cohort around the commissions we have, so the best move is to get on our radar early.
- Work on a real, paid public commission
- Learn beside an established artist
- Earn a professional credit on a finished work
You want to send students
If you teach or coordinate at an arts university, we'd like to build a pipeline with you. We can take students through faculty referral, course credit arrangements, or a standing partnership tied to our commission calendar.
- Place students on live community commissions
- Flexible: referral, credit, or ongoing partnership
- Documentation and credit your program can point to
The next commission is where you start.
We build apprenticeships around the work we have in front of us. Tell us who you are and what you make, and we'll keep you in mind for the right project.