2025 AICA Graduation Ceremony
Celebrate the accomplishments of the Arts Institute for Creative Advancement (AICA)’s Class of 2025 at our upcoming graduation ceremony!
📅 Date & Time: Wednesday, September 3, 2025 at 7:00 PM
📍 Location: Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H Street NE, Washington DC 20002
🎟️ Tickets: Reserve your free tickets here by Monday, September 1st. Advance registration is required; we cannot guarantee entry without a ticket.
The evening will feature guest artists Alondra Santos-Castillo and Adam “AJ” Johnson, along with a formal ceremony and reception to follow. Guests will have the opportunity to meet and celebrate with this year’s graduates as they launch their professional careers in technical theatre.
AICA Graduating Class of 2025: William Barnes, Shiloh Coleman, Malcolm Eckel, Hakeem S. Ford, Adam Franks, Martin Gardner, Onia Gross, Carlos Alberto Hernandez Jr., Joseph Jackson, Dante Jones, Mavelli Jones, Randi Lee, Tyler Lindsey, Grace Million, Nicholas Montgomery, Jaye Overton, Jordan Lauren Peele, Mahdi Shakur, D’Nya Slaughter, Narida Strowbridge, Dahvi Walker, and Jasper Weymouth.
We hope you’ll join us in applauding the extraordinary dedication of our graduates and welcoming them into the next stage of their artistic and professional journeys!
About the AICA
Launched at the beginning of 2023 to help alleviate the labor shortage in backstage workers and diversify the field, the Arts Institute for Creative Advancement (AICA) is a paid year-long career training and apprenticeship program in technical theatre production for young adults who have encountered obstacles to livable wage career paths. To date, 84% of AICA graduates are working consistently in professional theatre and event venues.
The groundbreaking career-readiness program was formed by the founding members of the DC Arts Education Alliance and is led by The Theatre Lab, Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, and Life Pieces To Masterpieces. Participation in the AICA program leads to immediate job placements that offer livable wages in the DMV theatre and entertainment industries. Partnering theatres at which apprentices have worked and trained include 1st Stage, Atlas Performing Arts Center, GALA Hispanic, Keegan Theatre, Rorschach Theatre, Studio Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, Spooky Action Theatre, Washington Stage Guild, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and more.
The AICA is supported by the Clark Winchcole Foundation, Congressional Sports for Charity, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton’s Community Project Fund, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the DC Department of Employment Services, the Department of Education through a subgrant from the Kennedy Center’s Access/VSA, the Harman Family Foundation, the Morgan Fund, the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, the Revada Foundation, The Share Fund, VC Mars Foundation, and the Venable Foundation.
