September 9 , 2008 In this Issue: >> Mentor Open House: Thursday September 11, 2008 from 5-6pm >> New Urban Arts Welcomes Students: Open House Week of October 6th-10th >> Dear Providence: An Exhibition of Creative Correspondence and Mail Art opening October 10th, 5-7 pm
Mentor Open House: Thursday September 11, 2008 from 5-6pm Are you considering applying to become an artist mentor? Would you like to be involved with our nationally recognized community art studio this school year? Find out more about our organization and the artist mentor position at the Mentor Open House. Learn about the artist mentor selection process, get a tour of our interdisciplinary art studio, meet New Urban Arts staff and pick up a mentor application on the eve of the application deadline. Drop by anytime from 5-6pm on Thursday September 11 at 743 Westminster Street in Providence. Questions, call or email Program Director, Sarah Meyer at 751-4556 or sarah@newurbanarts.org. Download an application. ***** New Urban Arts Welcomes Students: Open House Week of October 6th-10th The twelfth year of our nationally recognized after-school arts mentoring program begins October 14th! New Urban Arts is accepting new students for its free after-school arts programs for high school students beginning October 2008. Click here to download an application and register now for our Youth Mentorship Program. Save the dates for Open House week held Monday through Friday, October 6 –10th from 3:00 pm-5:00 pm at New Urban Arts, 743 Westminster Street. Please join us for a tour of our studio, an introductory art-making workshop, sign up for a mentoring group and meet students, artist mentors, and staff. All are welcome. New Urban Arts is a nationally recognized program that pairs an artist mentor and a small group of high school students. Together, they explore their creative side, make new friends, develop their artistic skills, develop a portfolio, and participate in gallery exhibitions. “To some people it’s just bricks and windows that sit on a corner of an inner city street but to me New Urban Arts is the most warm and inviting place I’ve ever known. New Urban Arts is where I transformed from a shy young boy to the confident and outspoken person I am today. I was accepted into my new “family” the minute I walked through the door and that has never changed. These strange, wonderful people taught me something new everyday and exposed me to a world full of color and mediums that I never knew existed.” Michael Moretti, alumnus student 2003-2007 The program has a flexible schedule and can accommodate students’ busy lives after-school. Arts mentoring groups meet between 3:00-5:00 pm, and/or 5:00-7:00 pm,, Monday through Friday, between October 14, 2008 to May 15, 2009. Students can drop in to the studio to work independently whenever they are available. Through our programs, students can practice photography, film, creative writing, fashion design, sculpture, painting, drawing, silkscreening, printmaking, and many other art forms. Juniors, who participate throughout the 2008-09 academic year, can also participate in a college preparatory program, offered by College Visions, beginning in the spring of 2009. We also offer homework assistance and support through our volunteer Studio Study Buddies. For more information about New Urban Arts, please contact: Sarah Meyer, Program Director at 401-751-4556 or sarah@newurbanarts.org. You are welcome to download registration information from www.newurbanarts.org or call 401-751-4556 to have one mailed to you. For school personnel, community partners, and other youth advocates, New Urban Arts recruitment team is available for informational sessions. If you are interested in scheduling a visit from us, please contact: Jesse Banks III, Studio Manager at jesse@newurbanarts.org or 401.751.4556. ***** Dear Providence: An Exhibition of Creative Correspondence and Mail Art opening October 10th, 5-7 pm Mark your calendars for October 10th, as New Urban Arts kicks off its gallery season with "Dear Providence," an art exhibition featuring work by 30 students created this summer during our third annual Art Inquiry program. Each summer, New Urban Arts brings together artists, scholars and high school students for a thematic exploration of the human experience as it intersects with creative practice. This year’s theme was Creative Correspondence. Also known as mail art, correspondence art typically involves the exchange of illustrated letters, decorated envelopes, postal experiments, artist trading cards, postcards, zines, artistamps, and more. Students met 14 hours each week over five weeks in July and August and even led arts workshops on this theme at partnering organizations, community centers, and parks. The exhibition is a collection of their inquiry, ideas and artworks including a video recording of sock puppet theater narrating postcards sent to us by poet Rick Benjamin, another video recording a student’s attempt to mail himself at a local post office, and a series of online call and response correspondence between RISD Fusion Arts Exchange Program. This multidisciplinary art exhibition is on view in our gallery from October 6- October 24, weekdays 10-6pm, at 743 Westminster Street in Providence, RI. 1. New Urban Arts goes to the woods! Check out flickr and our blog to find out more our first adventure of the summer! In June, we brought 12 students to the woods for an overnight leadership retreat. We made many memories over 30 hours spent together away from the studio including going on hikes, skipping rocks, learning about our individual leadership styles, grilling veggie burgers and corn, making art from found objects in nature (like a hula dancer made from sticks and leaves!), and writing letters to New Urban Arts that we read aloud to one another around a campfire. Listen to these personal letters written to New Urban Arts by students, mentors and staff. Click on Suscribe. 2. Art in the Park returns! This year, we participated again in the Celebrate Providence Neighborhood Performance Series sponsored by the City of Providence Arts Culture and Tourism Department. Under mentorship of Lauren Carter and Lydia Stein, 9 students worked to create a puppet show and animation shorts for an outdoor performance at the Dexter Training Grounds. The films were rained out and later screened at White Electric Coffee. Thank you to the hundreds of audience members who came out to see our creations! If you missed out, no worries! You can catch a recording of the live puppetry performance and animation videos on YouTube. The puppet show was created in the style of Toy Theater, which utilizes flat articulated puppets in a small decorative stage. Students animated a heartfelt letter New Urban Arts alumni, Casandra Castillo, wrote to her beloved Providence after a year away at college. The animation films use stop motion to capture a series of photographs that make objects and images appear to come to life when played as a continuous sequence. Click here to see photographs. Filmmakers : Lauren Carter, Darmelis Cruz, Miguel Garcia, Phillip Huerta, Fidan Mustafayara, Andrew Migliori, Rebecca Volynsky Traditionally Dells lemonade trucks are signs of an approaching summer in Providence. At New Urban Arts we know summer by the emergence of a dedicated energy towards cutting, pasting and stapling as students and mentors prepare their publications for the highly anticipated “Zine Swap. ” Zines are self-distributed publications that include drawings, photographs, poetry, collages, or other commentary. The Zine Swap at New Urban Arts invites students and mentors to trade these Xeroxed self-portraits with one another. This year more than 35 people participated and shared their favorite quotes, experiences from their first year in college, a bread making recipe, a comic on rainbows, and a travel diary from Nigeria. In its 3rd year, the Zine Swap was organized by students this year, who spent six weeks studying the practice of zine-making under mentorship by Melissa Mendes and Meredith Younger. Visit flickr for pictures from our Zine Swap and also for our visit to Papercut Zine Library in Cambridge, MA which inspired our efforts to organize a zine library at New Urban Arts. 4. Art is best when mailed! This summer’s Art Inquiry theme was Creative Correspondence, and we mailed a lot of art! Each morning we made postcards. Each student was paired up with a Providence artist to exchange art and letters back and forth all summer. We are currently collecting letters to Providence written, scribbled or drawn by Providence residents for our “Dear Providence” Project. Please send yours to us! Visit www.newurbanarts.org for details. Read on to learn about the gallery exhibition in October which features the mail art created this summer. Also, check out our blog for reflections from the Art Inquiry by summer artist mentor, Andrew Oesch.
On August 16, Former New Urban Arts Board Chair Michael Fournier hosted his birthday party at New Urban Arts. Instead of gifts, Michael asked guests, a small gathering of his close friends and family, to make donations to New Urban Arts in honor of his birthday. Guests met current students and alumni and saw a beautiful exhibition of alumni artwork organized by Studio Manager Jesse Banks III. A highlight was a video birthday message to Michael from New Urban Arts founder Tyler Denmead, sent all the way from England! Please join all of us in thanking Michael for his generosity and wishing him a happy birthday! *****
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