On Wednesday, May 9th, Montblanc North America President and CEO Jan-Patrick Schmitz led a Photography Master Class at Newcomers High School in Queens, his second session with Urban Arts students.

Jan-Patrick is not only a champion of Urban Arts Partnership, but also an avid photographer who has amassed a portfolio of millions of images. After lesson-planning and preparation with Teaching Artist Seren Divine, Jan-Patrick stepped into the after school photography class to share his experience and passion for portraiture with 22 students.

Jan-Patrick kicked off the session by explaining concepts essential to portrait photography: story, shape, structure, color, depth, lines, and, most importantly: light and shadow. The class then looked at examples of each of these aspects of composition.

The class broke into small groups, collected their cameras, and shot their own portraits at stations that offered natural light, artificial light, and hot lights. Jan-Patrick worked individually with groups, providing pointers and encouraging their creative ideas. He also offered a few students the opportunity to work with his SLR camera and 180 degree lens.

After the shoot, the class viewed a few samples of the work generated during the Master Class and reflected on how much they learned in just a one-hour session. (Examples below). Jan-Patrick encouraged the young photographers to keep shooting and learning, ending on an observation about the universal nature of the art:

"Body language can say so much. Even if you don't speak the same language, body language tells a story. That is one reason that photography is so powerful."





“[With photography] You can express yourself – it can tell others how you’re feeling. I learned how to use a corkboard to give light from the other side and focus on the face. I’m so excited!” – Sarah, 11th Grade

We recently conducted Parent Workshops at two of our partner schools in Manhattan, IS 528 in Washington Heights and MS 258 Community Action School on the Upper West Side.  These hands-on arts workshops give our students' families the opportunity to experience what students have been working on in our programs. 

At IS 528, we held two music-related workshops- a digital music production class led by teaching artist Karamba Sise and a drumming workshop taught by Harold Akyeampong.  In Karamba's workshop, parents listened to examples of original music created by the students and then explored making their own tracks in GarageBand.  In Harold's workshop, parents explored using congas to create various rhythms with their hands and drumsticks.  A short video clip of the group working a beat using drumsticks is below:

 Teaching artist Katherine Toukhy also led parents through a visual arts workshop that used the work of Haitian and Dominican artist Fireili Baez as inspiration for participants to create original pieces in watercolor and collage that celebrated the female form.  The group enjoyed experimenting with watercolor technique and creating their own works that reflected the way that Baez refelcts her cultural identity in her work.    

At MS 258 Community Action School, the workshop centered around issues related to bullying and cyber-bullying.  Students and parents came together to discuss the kinds of behaviors that constitute bullying, and how cyber-bullying is different from other kinds of bullying behavior.  After viewing examples of web videos created by young people to tell their stories of how they overcame challenges related to bullying, the group created their own video to help spread a positive anti-bullying message:

 

As part of the Expanded Learning Time pilot program at MS 258 Community Action School, teaching artist Brendan Boland has been partnering with Ms. Dyer, the school's math teacher, to lead a math and art integration program.  Students participate in the program as part of the school's "Saturday School" academic enrichment program.  Brendan and Ms. Dyer's program uses the arts to help students understand math concepts in new ways.

The group has been focusing on topics related to measurement, graphing, coordinates, positive and negative numbers, scale and proportion.  Their current project involves students using a grid to help them create their own drawing by enlarging an image by surrealist Paul Klee.  Students will then create an even larger version of the image by drawing and painting on pieces of canvas which will be assembled like a puzzle.  The group also plans to shoot a video documenting how their painting comes together.

"We've been working on grids.  We have to measure out the grid to make our drawing.  It's kind of hard to make sure things are not too big or too small.  It's a fun way to learn math and art at the same time." - Heaven, 6th grade

"We are working on "Sinbad the Sailor" by Paul Klee.  We're learning how to find the coordinates, which relates to math, and how to draw carefully, which relates to art.  My favortie part was drawing the fish and the sailor and looking at all the details.  I like learning art and math together because it helps us learn math better.  I think this project is really fun." - Iyanatu, 6th grade

 

Debut Gallery Show at UAP Offices

09 Feb 2012, 3:34 PM by keith, High School

A group of students from Manhattan Academy of Arts & Language (MAAL) recently visited the UAP offices to curate a show of their work and install it in our new gallery space.  We are thrilled to now have a dedicated space for a rotating display of original art from our amazing students. 

Teaching artist Elise Rasmussen has been partnering this year with Mr. Dwyer, the school's ELA teacher, to integrate photography and visual arts into the ELA curriculum.  The project featured in the gallery consists of a series of portraits students took of one another with corresponding poems that explore identity.  Through their words and images, students decided how they wanted to present themselves to the world, and what aspects of their lives have shaped their sense of who they are.  Students experimented with various lighting techniques to help capture their personalities and also explored how to incorporate text into their compositions.  Working with Elise at the office, students edited the photos, added text in Photoshop, framed them, and decided how they should be displayed. 

"The project was about describing ourselves and showing how we feel.  I think taking photos is another way to express how you feel in a moment.  I liked writing the poem most.  It was kind of hard to express myself.  It's really cool to have our project in the gallery.  I hope people see it and understand that it can be hard to express yourself, but you can think with your heart and show how you really are." - Perla, 10th grade 

"I feel so happy to have our work in the gallery.  I feel important.  It's good for us to help put the work up because it's our work and our friends' work." - Milenka, 9th grade

"We had to talk about ourselves and what we think people think about us.  I learned about others in my class through the project... about people's character and favorite things.  I feel like we did a great job and I am proud of myself to have my work in the gallery." - Stecy, 9th grade

"We took photographs and created something to show our personality.  The project makes you think about how you really are.  I learned about editing photos and writing poems.  My favorite part was getting to work with the computer.  I want people to see my picture and feel what I felt when I took the picture and wrote the poem." - Laura, 9th grade

Parent Workshops at PS 48M

02 Feb 2012, 12:43 PM by kaya, Elementary School

We had a great morning at PS 48M working with parents on portraiture they can do at home with kids. Teaching Artist Beto Sepulveda led parents through an exercise in using crayon transfer, black and white copies of photos, and marvelous imaginations to make some art.

Beto explaining the process:

Our parents working on their art:

Some of their finished works:

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