This article describes findings from two surveys to determine how the modes of learning, processes of making, and aesthetic products made by youth in extracurricular contexts compared or contrasted with learning and making in school-based art education programs. Survey respondents included over 400 adolescents and young adults (ages 14-21) who created art and shared examples of their work in online or offline social contexts. These studies' purposes were to gain insight regarding content, context, and processes of aesthetic engagement that would be perceived as useful to 21st-century youth and might entice them to enroll in secondary and postsecondary school art programs.