“The Center for Active Design wanted to amplify youth voices in their revised Active Design Guidelines. More than offering paid creative youth development, this program challenged our young people to take a sense of agency in the future of our city.”
— CAW Executive Director Brian Ricklin
Read More“When I go into the classroom, I know my content and I have my lesson plan, but let’s say it’s more like a road map. There are always different ways in, different paths and shortcuts. Sometimes your students put up detour signs, and they will tell you if you need to go somewhere first before you can accomplish your instructional goals. Sometimes you have to take the scenic roads.”
— CAW Teaching Artist Ivory Nunez-Medrano
Read More“Art has the inherent advantage of connecting to youth in a way that gives them space to tell their stories. Since the stories we tell ourselves impact the kind of person we become, my goal is to help young people become self-aware so that they not only envision, but live out, their own great stories.”
– CAW Teaching Artist Ryan Davis
Read MoreThis summer, Creative Art Works employed over 150 young people through our public art youth employment programs. About half of those Youth Apprentices participated in multimedia workforce programs. This group was sub-divided into cohorts, each specializing in one of three disciplines: documentary filmmaking, animated storytelling, and graphic arts. While all of CAW's youth employment is grounded in social justice, this was especially true for the multimedia teams who tackled subjects including global warming and environmental degradation, police and prison reform, and access to affordable healthcare and housing. Industry professionals and experts on criminal and environmental justice met with our YA’s on a weekly basis to advise them on the issues and help them craft a compelling message. We invite you to sample some of the many videos and images created by our Youth Apprentices.
Hope and Balance is the eighth project Creative Art Works has created for our long-standing partner, the New York State Family Court and the third for the Bronx Division. The three interconnected panoramas will be installed in the third floor courtroom of Bronx Family Court, which is the largest and grandest courtroom in the building. This is a first for any CAW artwork in either the Bronx or Manhattan division — previous works have been displayed in the lobby or waiting rooms.
Read More“I think that a lot of people are scared to start. I know a lot of people here were scared to start painting, because they were afraid to mess up the mural, because this was a project for the people. But I think it's okay to try new things. And it's okay to just let yourself have fun while working. You always want to make sure that you're doing a good job, but you can still have fun and not stress yourself out so much. I feel like you should do something that you actually care about, because you get more out of it, just emotionally and mentally and physically. You enjoy it more.”
Read MoreThey call themselves the “Bodega Cats.” They are eighteen NYC residents between the ages of 16 and 21 who gathered in East Harlem to paint a massive mural in the atrium of The Crossing, an L+M / Invesco mixed-income residential development. These Youth Apprentices represent the cultural, ethnic, religious, and gender diversity of our city, but they dedicated their summer to creating a work of public art that, “preserves the history, culture, diversity, intergenerational unity, and flavor of East Harlem.”
Read MoreCheck out these rock stars! When Savills North America tapped Creative Art Works to paint two murals to bring joy and vibrancy to a pair of hallways in their newly redeveloped Manhattan headquarters, they requested that the designs reflect their love of New York City, pop music and nature. It was a tall order, but our Youth Apprentices had more than enough attitude and swagger to make it happen.
Read MoreWith just one week left to finish their projects, Creative Art Works Youth Apprentices are rushing to meet deadlines. Public art teams are turning design proposals into finished art. Multimedia teams are crafting persuasive social justice messages through film, animation and graphic art. Read a roundup of selected highlights from our fast-paced summer Youth Employment Program.
Read MoreRead More“When I started taking photos, I realized that I have potential and skill. I feel that I was getting better in different areas as I was doing these projects. I feel proud of this work because these were my ideas.”
– Courtney McGeary, an intern in a CAW digital photography class at Queens Community Justice Center
Students in two CAW Programs at the High School of Law and Public Service in upper Manhattan made art that addressed social justice issues that have a profound impact on their daily lives. Students in an integrated in-school program combined neighborhood maps and statistics to address issues of student homelessness, redlining, and the school-to-prison pipeline; while students in an after-school youth employment program created a short documentary film about the immigrant experience. The first program found beauty by using the visual representation of stunning data to craft powerful calls to action. The second program created a deeply moving and honest portrait of a first generation immigrant in the NYC public school system.
Read MoreFor a group of remote-learners at PS/MS 278, virtual tours of NYC alleviated some of the monotony of being stuck at home during the pandemic and provided a sense of community and camaraderie. Mapping the Hidden City was a program that integrated the exploration a variety of art techniques with the exploration of NYC neighborhoods familiar and unfamiliar through online resources such as Google Maps and Google Images. In this issue of our blog, CAW Teaching Artist Brandi Yu plays tour guide and lets us tag along on some of the “field trips” that inspired her students.
Read MoreNew York is famous for its many unique characters, so it’s great to see students in a Creative Art Works after-school character design program at Hamilton Grange Middle School creating characters that reflect the diversity of our city. This program offered a deep dive into the graphic and storytelling skills that make an animated character come to life.
Read MoreA Creative Art Works CASA filmmaking program challenged students at MS 254 in The Bronx to write, direct and edit a dramatic short. Working around the challenges of Zoom meetings, four students bonded as a team and produced a cohesive and affecting story about cyber-bullying, witchcraft, voodoo, and forgiveness.
Read MoreYoung people in a CAW creative workforce development program learned graphic design techniques such as composition, use of color, visual literacy, and storytelling through words and images. Learning these skills offered these interns a chance to practice transferable career skills such as presentation and interviewing techniques, critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration. The program also amplified youth voices by asking participants to design effective posters on a social justice issue of their choice.
Read MoreOver the course of the pandemic, Creative Art Works distributed over 820 “art-to-go” bags. The bags contained a wealth of art materials to be used during a free remote art-making program, called Community Works: Design + Build, which ran every day during Spring Break. A combination of urban design and mixed media arts, this program invited young people to imagine ways they might improve their own neighborhoods.
Read MoreWant some inspiration? For the first time ever, all three of our Honorees for the Creative Art Works Annual Benefit for Kids are successful and inspiring women. Congratulations to Whitney Arcaro of RXR Realty; Karen Lupuloff, Supervising Judge for New York Family Court; and our Youth Honoree Natajha Graham, a former Youth Apprentice and programs Intern currently enrolled at Spelman College. Check out their brief video interviews and their award presentations from our Virtual Gala on April 22nd.
Read MoreStudents in Creative Art Works’ Digital Design class at PS/MS 278 took a deep dive into manipulating images and text. Students worked in Pixlr, a free software similar to Adobe Photoshop. Each project focused on a specific aspect of digital design, including collage, masking, and manipulating type. The results were beautiful, surreal, funny, and often thought-provoking. Presented within is a selection of artwork along with some recorded statements by the artists themselves.
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