Future Imagemakers is an innovative after-school program run by the Photography & Imaging Department at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. It gives high school students the opportunity to learn about digital photography, create, and develop ideas that are taught by NYU students.
This year, we are lucky to have 13 very talented young students join us from high schools all over New York City as well as Long Island. Comprised of sophomore and juniors, students came in with different photography backgrounds and skill levels but all have a strong passion and dedication for the art.
Some of our assignments have included photographing the students’ community, family members and strangers, as well as shooting a series inspired by a song or piece of literature. The students also visited the Allen Ginsberg exhibit at the NYU Grey Gallery, practiced shooting out in Washington Square Park, and will have the opportunity to shoot out on St. Marks and take a field trip to MoMa later in the spring.
Our goal for this program is to help students not only understand how to shoot with DSLRs and work in Adobe Bridge and Photoshop, but to also help them cultivate new ideas, open them up to new works of art, and show them the importance and power that photography has in our world. We also have a class blog so feel free to check it out!
Below is a slideshow of images from students’ work so far this semester. Each photo was chosen by the students themselves.
Another great post from SPARK a Movement– grassroots mobilizing around the clear and present danger that sexualization poses to girls and young women. They work directly with girls 13-22 to train them to be media activists and leaders in the fight against sexualization.
Once upon a time, my friends and I had to deal with a male teacher who liked to tell girls what to do with their bodies. One of my friends got a “talking to” about her dress, even though she was within the dress code, because–and this is a direct quote–“teenage boys have thoughts.” Another time, the whole class had to listen to a speech from him on the importance of girls “protecting” their virginity. And here’s what happened: when I walked past his class every day, I felt pangs of fear in my chest. Actually going to class felt like going into battle. read more
Since 1996, the Teenage Diaries series has given tape recorders to young people around the country. They conduct interviews, keep audio journals, and record the sounds of daily life — usually collecting more than 30 hours of raw tape over the course of a year, edited into documentaries airing on NPR’s All Things Considered. Whether it’s the story of Amanda, a gay teen trying to understand her sexuality, or the story of Juan, who crossed the Rio Grande with his family illegally, these stories offer insight into the mysterious life of teenagers.
Broken City Lab is an artist-led interdisciplinary creative research collective and non-profit organization working to explore and unfold curiosities around locality, infrastructures, and creative practice leading towards civic change.
In the midst of finishing the semester and launching our new website, we made time to update a list originally made by Community Programs at the International Center of Photography of arts programs for teens throughout NYC. Click to download list.
It is inspiring how many great programs exist in the city.
Dana Edell is currently the executive director of SPARK Movement, a national activist movement working to end the sexualization of girls. Prior to her work with SPARK, she founded and served as executive director of viBe Theater Experience from 2002-2012. viBe is a nonprofit performing arts education organization that offers free afterschool arts programs to underserved teenage girls in New York City. She has produced and directed/ co-directed more than 60 plays, 7 CDs of original music and 10 music videos. She has over 15 years of experience as a teacher and leader in arts and advocacy programs with teenage girls. She co-founded and directed Inside/Out Performing Arts, a theater-making program for girls affected by the juvenile justice system in San Francisco and was a theater artist-in-residence in New York City public elementary and middle schools. Dana has taught theater and social change, arts education, solo performance and qualitative research methods at NYU, CUNY, the Bard College Prison Initiative at Bayview Women’s Prison and at Manhattan Marymount College where she developed a minor in Arts and Communities. She has a BA with honors in Classics/Ancient Greek from Brown University, an MFA in Theater Directing from Columbia University and a PhD in Educational Theater from NYU.
Following are notes from the inspiring guest lecture given by Dana to the Community Collaborations Class on April 17.
Dana’s first experience working in a community based program was in college in the SPACE program at Brown University where she worked with incarcerated women creating performing arts programs.
After college, she and a friend founded the Inside Out Performing Arts program started in Fall 1998 in SF (pre-internet!). She also worked for Brava – SF – the oldest women’s theater in country with an extensive educational program.
She realized that she needed to be a working artist in order to be good teacher and director for the girls. She decided that she needed graduate school so went to Columbia for a MFA in Directing.
In the summer of 2002, she and Chandra Thomas, a fellow-student at Columbia, started a program for girls in theaters at Columbia with high school students from around Columbia. First performance “Say it Like Is”. This became viBe Theater Experience
After 10 years, Vibe in now located in YWCA bulding in Brooklyn – Atlantic Ave with other women/girl’s social justice organization. Now has staff in 7 people – 7-10 projects per year. Vibe stages many program including songmakers program – origianl music.. No censorship. Only rule no bad theater! s Just had 60th play produced and Vibe entering 10th year.
After reading academic books about girls and not seeing her experience with girls, decided she wanted to make an impact at a more theorectical and policy level. So she went to grad school at NYU in the Educational Theater Phd program. Her dissertation was on Vibe. She wrote it was she was still at Vibe working every day. Interviewed the girls as research. Developed new research methodology for girls when she realized that interviewing them in traditional manner was not getting at deeper truth. Gave them tape recorders to all girls in study and wrote out questions and ask them to make a tape in response to the questions and to feel free to go anywhere with questions. Gave Dana access in a very different way. Her dissertation became about how girls perform themselves–how they want things to be. What was on tape recorder was very different than what came out in shows. In theater pieces, girls were perpetuating stereotypes while acting like they are telling real stories.
Dana’s approach is to give the girls support in everything they do but will challenge and question along the way.What does mean to provide space to tell difficult stories. Is it great for girls? the audience? what are we doing about the stories they are telling. She asked herself: shouldn’t I be doing something about the content of the stories? Need more than just spaces to process. Wanted to get at roots of problems – which brought her to SPARK.
Spark Summitt – started about a year and half ago. Started by Deborah Tolman and group of 5 other women who were developmental psychologists. Began as a response to the APA report on the sexualization of girls– finally a study that said it was bad – what we all already knew but finally proof! SPARK makes girls part of solution. Dana became executive director since in May 2011. The board consisits of girls from 13-20 from around the country. Partners with 60 organizations. Read more about Spark here.
THE PUBLIC SCHOOL NEW YORK is a school with no curriculum. It’s GLOBAL At the moment, it operates as follows: first, classes are proposed by the public (I want to learn this or I want to teach this); then, people have the opportunity to sign up for the classes (I also want to learn that); finally, when enough people have expressed interest, the school finds a teacher and offers the class to those who signed up. THE PUBLIC SCHOOL is not accredited, it does not give out degrees, and it has no affiliation with the public school system. It is a framework that supports autodidactic activities, operating under the assumption that everything is in everything. LOCAL THE PUBLIC SCHOOL project was initiated in New York by common room and Telic Arts Exchange as The Public School (for Architecture) and operated with support from the Van Alen Institute between September and December 2009.
TRIPLE CANOPY works collectively with writers, artists, researchers and other collaborators on projects that deal critically with culture and politics, and the ways people engage them, both online and in the world at large. more
THE PUBLIC SCHOOL NEW YORK and TRIPLE CANOPY are based at 177 Livingston Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Light Industry (a venue for film and electronic art in Brooklyn) also shares the storefront at 177 Livingston. map
MOUSE is an innovative youth development organization that prepares students with essential technology and 21st century skills, empowering them to become the leaders of tomorrow.
Mouse Squad
MOUSE Squad is a school- or community organization-based, student run technical help desk. Students who work on the MOUSE Squad are called technicians and they are responsible for fixing, taking care of, and supporting all of the computer-related needs in their schools. As a MOUSE Squad technician, you are given a whole lot of responsibility and, in return, you are asked to act professionally as you troubleshoot computer problems, clean and maintain technical equipment, and support the teachers in their regular computer use. more
MOUSE Squad is a cost-effective solution to the problem of inadequate levels of on-site support in schools and the need to serve the 21st century educational and professional needs of students. Rather than looking outside the school community to create the basic level of computer troubleshooting and maintenance support needed to assist teachers in their work to integrate technology into teaching and learning, MOUSE Squad draws upon the motivation, skills, and abilities of any school’s greatest resources – its students.
MOUSE Squad provides middle, and high school students with opportunities to develop 21st century skills and apply them as they solve technical problems faced by their schools. The program, modeled on the type of help desks that have become standard in business and industry, prepares and supports participants in the creation and operation of a student-run, school-based, data-driven, technical support help desk.
Soliya is developing a global network of young adults and empowering them to bridge the divide between the “West” and the “Arab & Muslim World.”
Soliya is a pioneering non-profit organization using new technologies to facilitate dialogue between students from diverse backgrounds across the globe. Our flagship program, the Connect Program, uses the latest web-conferencing technology to bridge the gap between university students in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and the United States. In a time when media plays an increasingly powerful role in shaping peoples’ viewpoints on political issues, Soliya provides students with the opportunity, skills, and tools to shape and articulate their own viewpoints on some of the most pressing global issues facing their generation. more
