IS 528 Holiday Share

23 Dec 2011, 11:54 AM by keith, Middle School

Students in the Video and Visual Arts after school programs at IS 528 in Washington Heights held a Holiday Share event at the school to celebrate present their recent work.

Visual arts students displayed recent pieces covering serveral projects, all rooted in cultural traditions from around the world.  They discusses their process and decision-making, highlighting various visual arts concepts they had worked on, such as realistic body proportions, symmetry and patterned decoration.

Video students held a screening featuring two of their finished projects, the IS 528 Digital Portrait and "Revenge," a short horror movie that tells the story of the ghosts of bullied teenagers that haunt the students that harmed them, wreaking havoc on their Halloween party.  They also alswered questions from the audience and gave a preview of their current project which consists of paper characters in stop motion scenes with original dialogue.

"Our party is about celebrating the long time we worked together on out videos.  We wanted to show our work.  It's fun and I have been learning a lot of new things about video.  My favorite thing I learned was to make a stop motion video with characters and making them move so that people couldn't see our hands moving them." - Mark, 6th grade

"Today was a holiday party for the good work in video and visual arts.  I'm in both clubs, so I felt more proud.  I'm excited about the kachina dolls we're making.  They come from Native Americans and I'm not finished yet, but I really like it." - Gian, 6th grade

"In video we're working on animating paper avatars.  The stories are about heartbreak and friendship and stuff.  I'm excited about what we will try to do in 2012." - Isabel, 7th grade

"In visual arts we share our projects.  We help each other to do good work and encourage each other.  We're working on adding lines and patterns to a photo of a face.  We could do our own face of another face.  I like that so many people get to see our art and when they ask me questions about my art, it makes me feel like a real artist." - Joseline, 6th grade

MAAL Students Create Original Propaganda Posters

12 Nov 2011, 12:14 AM by keith, High School

This year at Manhattan Acadmy of Arts & Language (MAAL), teaching artist Elise Rasmussen has been collaborating with Ms. Delgado in two Global History classes.  Throughout the year, students will be creating arts-based projects that use photography and visual arts to showcase their understanding of various historical concepts and eras from the curriculum.

In the Global History 3 class, students have been studying political revolutions from around the world to better understand the roots of revolution and how revolutions affect the lives of the people.  They worked in groups to create propaganda posters each related to a specific revolution, and then presented them to the class to explain the background, and important events and people involved.  Each poster included a slogan and at least one original photo that the students created to capture the spirit of the revolution.

The Global History 1 class has been exploring religions from around the world, and examining the differences and similarities across religions.  Students created and presented posters to communicate messages of non-discrimination based on religion, each using an original photo devised and shot by the group.  In these images, students experimented with using lighting techniques to help make their intended messages come across even more powerfully.

"We were learning about world cultures and religions and how we can all live together.  It's an important message because some people think that our differences are bad, and they might act weird.  My favorite part was taking the picture.  We're trying to say that we might come from different cultures, but really we're all the same." - Emelly, 9th grade

"My project is about how religions shouldn't make boarders between us.  My favorite part was how our picture uses hands to represent people of different cultures.  In the world, there are so many people, and so many religions." - Freddy, 9th grade

"My poster is about how there are no real differences between our color or religions.  This message is important because we are all equals.  My favorite part was taking our photo, because it shows that we can all be unified and equal." - Manuela, 9th grade

Protest Posters by UAI Students

04 Nov 2011, 5:21 PM by keith, High School

Teaching Artist Caits Meissner has been collaborating with U.S. History teacher Brodie Crawford at The Urban Assembly Institute of Math & Science for Young Women (UAI) to help bring history alive through they arts.  Throughout the year, students will be creating projects in a variety of media that are designed to deepen their understanding of our country's past and connect to relevant events and themes of today.

For their first project, students created original protest posters to communicate specific messages related to their study of The Bill of Rights.  Students also took a field trip to Zucotti Park to interview and photograph the protesters of Occupy Wall Street to find out firsthand about what they were protesting and why.  Each student wrote an essay on their own unique viewpoint on The Bill of Rights, and then looked at examples of propaganda and protest art as inspiration for their own posters directly related to the main arguments of their essays.  For the final step in the project, students took digital photo portraits of one another holding their posters, and then reflected on their work and gave one another feedback.

"I think the project is awesome.  We connect art to current events and the essays we wrote.  I hope that people can see our posters and understand our point of view.  Usually our voices aren't heard." - Merlissa, 11th grade

"I found it very interesting to connect our history work with our art work.  It's a good way to express our ideas about what's going on in the world today.  I hope that people see our posters and recognize, and then things change." - Regine, 11th grade

"Basically, we had to make a thesis statement about how we felt about the governmentand make a poster to help people see our ideas.  Mine is about how the Bill of Rights protects us.  The Bill of Rights promises protection from the government." - Nicole, 11th grade

"My poster says 'Stop the Abuse of Power'."  We went to Occupy Wall Street and saw the protesters, and I've seen it on the news too.  I hope people see what kind of power they have and how they could use it in a good way to prevent bad things from happening." - Camiel, 11th grade

"I think it's a really good project.  It's about our rights.  We interviewed protesters to find out what they were really protesting.  My poster is about how our rights can be violated sometimes, especially if you don't know them." - Lucey, 11th grade

"My poster is about the First Amendment and how we should be able to speak out.  My poster has a person speaking out with handcuffs on their hands.  I was trying to communicate that even though we have freedom of speech, we're not so free sometimes." - Issis, 11th grade 

Visual Arts Students from IS 528 Celebrate El Dia De Los Muertos (The Day of the Dead)

03 Nov 2011, 4:32 PM by keith, Middle School

Students in the after school Visual Arts program at IS 528 in Washington Heights have been working with teaching artist Katherine Toukhy to create work inspired by traditions related to El Dia De Los Muertos. 

The group recently took a field trip to Azucarera, a gallery in West Harlem run by artist and NYC public school science teacher Nova Gutierrez.  The students experienced the work of two local Latino artists, Andrea Arroyo and Felipe Galindo, whose work highlights very different aspects of Mexican life and culture. 

Our group made connections between the work we are doing in class, learning about Dia de los Muertos and drawing skulls and dancing skeletons, with these artists' visions. Students were also excited to decorate their own sugar skulls and make tissue paper flowers, objects that are both traditionally part of the Dia de los Muertos alters.  Special thanks to Alyssa Gutierrez, who hosted our group in the gallery.

Spring Showcase at Brandeis HS

04 Jun 2011, 12:34 AM by keith, High School

Students from the three Urban Arts Partnership after school programs at Louis D. Brandeis High School recently came together for their annual Spring Showcase.  All three programs presented strong work and celebrated their accomplishments with family and friends in attendance.  We’re so proud of all the hard work and creativity from these young artists!

The String Ensemble performed three pieces they have been working on: "Pokerface” by Lady Gaga, the traditional hymn “How Can I Keep From Singing,” and “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay.  They displayed confidence and technical skill in their playing, as well as a strong sense of cohesion as an ensemble.

“This year I learned how to play my instrument, how to practice better, and how to not get stage fright.  I will remember performing and being with the group.  It was my first year with Urban Arts and I had fun.” said 11th grader Alexis.

“We worked on a lot of different pieces… my favorites were Lady Gaga and “Viva La Vida.”  We learned how to listen to each other, how to tune our instruments, and how to perform without being nervous.” added 12th grader Regine.

The Good Lookin’ Photo Club presented several different projects they created during the year.  Students created comic panels using photos they had taken to create original stories and discussed their process.  The group also had a large display of students’ favorite shots taken during the year to show the diverse range of work produced.  The club also screened two stop-motion animations, both made in collaboration with the other two UAP programs at Brandeis.  With the Drama Club, students created original experimental scenes.  They also collaborated with the String Ensemble to create "moving portraits" of members of the String Ensemble, set to a recording of the ensemble's performance of "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay.  Check out this animation below: 

“We worked a lot on building a portfolio and taking pictures in different situations.  We learned about stop-motion animation and prop setups.  I liked shooting still life scenes.  Mine had different art supplies and other things from home.  My favorite things to shoot are portraits because I love getting people’s reactions.  I also like landscapes because the scene can change over time, and a picture can capture how things looked so people in the future can look back and see how it was.  I’m glad I joined the club.  I’m an artist and I like taking pictures of anything.” remarked 11th grader Jason.

The Drama Club students performed their original one-act play “American Dream,” which tells the story of a dysfunctional family coming apart.  The characters include a delusional mother who tries to pretend everything’s perfect, her prized plant TreeTree that she secretly talks to for advice and comfort, her troubled husband who is tormented with emotional instability and nightmares since returning from military duty, and her two daughters who argue constantly, one of whom finds solace in talking to her dog.  The play included humor, intrigue and surprising turns, as well as strong performances from all the actors.  “American Dream” is a unique and darkly funny vision from these young performing artists.

“Our play was about a family becoming psychotic.  I played the tree… he helps the main character, Barbara, by talking to her and gives her advice about her family.  I thought I wasn’t going to like acting and bring on stage, but I really liked it.” said 11th grader Joel. 

Fellow Drama Club member Ashley (11th grade) added, “I like acting because I get to be creative playing different characters and working with people.  Getting into character can be hard, but then I think about how the character acts throughout their day and what they’re thinking and feeling.  I learned how you get into character by focusing and bringing your emotions into it.  The play was awesome.  I liked the story most because we all put in our ideas.”

“I improved my acting skills and got to exercise something I love.  When you’re hungry for something, you have to do whatever it takes.  My character is a retired military man.  He has nightmares about who killed his friend.  He’s seeing a psychiatrist and eventually remembers that he actually killed his friend.  There’s a lot of emotions.  I think that connecting with my emotions and focusing helps me bring emotions to the stage.” said 12th grader Edwin.