Our kids are meeting, and building, in three dimensions! CAW is providing out-of-school-time programs to students in Manhattan, The Bronx, and Queens through the Cultural After School Adventures initiative. These programs provide enrichment, social emotional support, and community building to students during these challenging times.
Read MoreMaking the transition from middle school to high school can be overwhelming. Students suddenly have a lot more choices and a lot more responsibility. Students can become so focused on getting through each class that they never stop to think about why they are going to school in the first place. The Foundations class at A. Philip Randolph Campus High School is intended to address this very issue. Creative Art Works is providing a digital arts curriculum that integrates with the Foundations program and offers students an alternative point of entry to some essential questions.
“I remember when I was younger my mom and I would sit down on the living room floor and rummage through boxes of family pictures. We looked for portraits of my grandparents and other family members who lived far from us. I liked to ask questions about who everyone was... My mom always responded with “no sé Arecis. No vivo de recuerdos.” Read more in our profile of former CAW Youth Apprentice Arecis Tiburcio Zane.
Read MoreNermen first joined Creative Art Works last summer on the graphic design team in the multimedia program [link] because she wanted to try something outside her comfort zone and not directly related to a medical career path; however, she discovered a passion for the arts and their ability to amplify issues of social justice and public health. When the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene invited CAW to collaborate with the Center for Active Design to provide photography for the upcoming revised edition of the award-winning Active Design Guidelines, Nermen was chosen as one of six CAW all-stars to participate in the program. Over the course of this program, Nermen included a brief synopsis of her photography assignments with her weekly submissions. We were captivated by her anecdotes and invited her to expand on her experiences as a CAW Youth Apprentice.
Read More“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.
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