Experimental Videos at MS 258 Community Action School

21 Jan 2012, 12:27 AM by keith

Students in MS 258's after school video program have been working with teaching artist Daniel Heffernan to create experimental, non-narrative videos. These "video poems" focus on shapes and patterns and utilize a wide range of effects in iMovie to transform their footage into these unique pieces. The students did all the shooting and editing themselves and we look forward to their next project, a series of short promotional videos focusing on the school and the things that make it a great place to learn.

“This class taught movies are made by filming, editing, and importing.  Movies are like other art forms because you can also express yourself in other art forms.  I think art is important. I think that because art is a way to express yourself.” – Brent

“I think movies are like other art forms because they mostly all tell stories in them.  This class taught me about how movies are made by showing me examples of images.” - Yarissa
 

Building Community through Public Art Making at MSAP

23 Dec 2011, 4:24 PM by frank

Building Community through Public Art Making at MSAP

Students at Brooklyn’s Middle School for Art & Philosophy are building confidence and cultivating community through a public mural project.

UAP Teaching Artist Elizabeth Traina reports on some exciting public art-making happening in her visual art residency at Brooklyn’s Middle School for Art and Philosophy.

Working on a red brick wall in this bustling middle school’s cafeteria, MSAP students are experiencing the powerful effects of community art-making.

Attracted by the sight of paint brushes and ladders, fellow students and teachers pause to watch Elizabeth’s class engaged in painting a recreation of Raphael’s famous mural “The School of Athens” the original of which can be seen at the Vatican.

The figures in the painting are icons; representations of classical philosophers, they are stand-ins for some of the major pillars of western philosophy.

In line with Urban Arts Methodology, which takes students from experiencing a seminal work of art to creating their own original artwork, students are responding to this visual art “masterpiece” by working together to paint a mural that makes the teachings of the ancient Greeks visible, known, and integrated into the modern MSAP school environment and culture.

Says Elizabeth, “In our adaptation of The School of Athens, both MSAP Students and the original philosophers will be visually represented. The fresco, framed by an arch, is a passageway…and young people can enter the mural and engage with different philosophical ideas and fundamental teachings that are relevant to their lives today. Students involved in the project are learning important artistic tools such as depth of field and perspective, as well as color theory and general painting techniques.”

Besides learning fundamental painting technique, one of the challenges MSAP students have is to find ways to simultaneously honor the classical themes of the painting, while acknowledging the diversity of student voice and identity at their school.

To help achieve this outcome, students from UAP Teaching Artist Mike Cordero’s Design Class have been invited to visit the mural club to offer their feedback, share ideas, and lend a hand.

“Everyone in the school…students, administrators, even parents, are invited to come raise a paintbrush. We want everyone make their contribution to this important community mural project.”

Week by week the art work is coming together. Stay tuned as the students of MSAP work to fully develop their ideas for the mural.

Elizabeth says that there is “a dynamite energy” building around the mural, and she expects that students will bring the project to completion in the spring of 2012.

Urban Arts Mural Project @ MSAP is a 21st Century Learning Center Funded Program.

Posted by Michael Wiggins

IS 528 Holiday Share

23 Dec 2011, 11:54 AM by keith

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

IS 528 Digital Portrait

13 Dec 2011, 12:05 AM by keith

For the Digital Portrait project, students from IS 528's after school Video Club wrote short declarative statements about their daily lives and experiences at school. They developed storyboards to accompany these scripts, and then recorded interviews of one another and shot "b-roll" footage to represent/illustrate their vocal track. Audio and visuals were assembled into a non-narrative video piece. As a reflection, each student made two collages, one addressing "What I learned making the video" and one addressing "What I hope to improve upon in the future." Student collages were collected into a reflection zine and each student received a copy.  Sample images from the zine are below:

"We cut out letters for the beginning part and took pictures to animate them to make the titles.  We did interviews about our school and what we think about it." - Laurisa, 7th grade

"I like how we animated the letters and made them move. My role was to help with the titles to animate the letters.  I want people to notice this part of the video and think about how we did it." - Andres, 7th grade

"One message of the video is about how we have fun at this school.  I was interviewed about what I like to do and also I was part of the dancing scene." - Luis, 6th grade

"My favorite part of the project was the dancing and using the camera and computers.  I like using the camera because I like to use equipment and push the buttons.  I liked working with everybody." - Isabel, 7th 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

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.