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Young massive star clusters (YMCs) host the majority of all massive stars, and therefore represent a fundamental unit of star formation and stellar feedback in galaxies. However, questions remain regarding the timescales and conditions necessary for YMCs to form and evolve in the densest and dustiest regions of the interstellar medium (ISM). Thanks to JWST’s unprecedented capabilities, this poorly understood process can be observed in a range of extragalactic environments for the first time. Here I will present ongoing work to identify and characterize dust-embedded YMCs in both normal and starburst galaxies in the local Universe. By combining observations from 0.3-4.4um we have fit the spectral energy distributions (SED) of all 2207 YMC candidates in NGC 628 to derive physical quantities (age, mass, extinction, and dust properties), finding evidence for a change in the dust grain size distribution as YMCs emerge from there birth clouds. Further, with multi-band NIRCam observations in combination with the NIRSpec IFU we find variations in the near-infrared colors with both the Pa-alpha and 3.3um PAH line strength, suggesting a rapid evolutionary sequence as YMCs clear their surroundings in the nucleus of NGC 3256. The wide range of ISM physical conditions seen amongst nearby galaxies affords us a high-resolution look at how star formation activity evolves with environment.