Sometimes, good things come in threes. This past November, several Creative Art Works students and Youth Apprentices earned recognition from local, national and international organizations. We are beyond proud of our young people and we would like to share their accomplishments with you.
Read MoreThe most important connections in our lives are the ones closest to home. This summer, our Multimedia Team created five short films about nonprofits and other organizations that work to improve the quality of life in our city. The subjects include pianos in public places, a grass-roots effort to make improvements to a local city park, an ambitious plan to create murals in Upper Manhattan of 314 North American birds threatened by climate change, and a program that brings soccer and poetry to young NYC residents. Of course, there is also a documentary about Creative Art Works summer Public Art Youth Employment program.
Read MoreOur first set of "lightning interviews" were recorded on only the second day of our summer Public Art Youth Employment program, when our Youth Apprentices were just starting to get a handle on their job responsibilities. We're now past the halfway point, so our young painters and videographers have some experience under their belts. They know their jobs. They know their projects have tight, non-negotiable, deadlines. They know that there are high expectations.
And they are rising to the occasion.
Read MoreStop-motion animation is a multidisciplinary art form that incorporates writing, sculpture, painting and digital video techniques. For this project, students wrote short scenes, built miniature sets, and designed characters using modeling clay. That part of the process is limited only by the imagination of the artist. Animating the characters, by contrast, requires patience, planning, and communication.
Read MoreAll art-making is an act of communication. The processes that surround exhibiting artwork — the development of artists’ statements, the receiving of feedback and recognition — are essential elements in supporting the development of a sense of agency: the belief that intentional, creative action can transform the world around us.
Read MoreOur 2016 Public Art Youth Employment Program started on July 5th with an orientation at the Oberia D. Dempsey Multi-Service Center in Harlem. Over the course of six weeks, Youth Apprentices will be paid to participate in six mural projects and to contribute to two multi-media or graphics projects at six partner locations. Read on for details about each site.
Read MoreCreative Art Works is proud to participate in MonumentArt, an international mural festival that is bringing together outstanding artists from around the world to simultaneously paint monumental murals in nine public spaces in the South Bronx and Manhattan’s East Harlem/El Barrio neighborhood. CAW Teaching Artists and Youth Employees are working alongside renowned Guest Artists, including Elizam Escobar, Luis Vidal, Faith47, El Mac, Sego, Cero, Ever, Viajero and 2Alas.
Read MoreToday the Multimedia Team joined the Youth Employees from Renaissance School of the Arts on a field trip to The Museum of the City of New York. CAW Teaching Artist Assistant Kito Kirtley said she wanted her students to be encouraged to make art of their own.
Read MoreArt is such an immediate way of communicating, because it bypasses language and gets to the essence of an idea. During the second week of the CAW Summer Public Art Youth Employment Program, our Youth Apprentices explored the power of symbols to tell a complex story.
Read MoreCAW returns to our roots in the heart of East Harlem. This neighborhood, also know as El Barrio, has a long tradition of expressing its vibrant culture through public art. Youth Apprentices will be painting a large-scale mural on the east-facing exterior wall of the Renaissance School of the Arts (RSA). But before they start on the wall, they will participate in a number exercises to sharpen their skills.
Read MoreThe Creative Art Works Multimedia Team is in a unique position. These young people - along with their teaching artists - are charged with telling the authentic stories that emerge from our Public Art Youth Employment Program and to observe and interpret what develops from the interplay of art-making, youth employment, and community engagement. But since the Multimedia team is a CAW employment program in its own right, these Youth Apprentices will be telling their own stories as well, through photography, video, reporting, and blogging.
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