In this Issue:
***** "Becoming the Change" opens this Friday! Each year, 15 artists volunteer at New Urban Arts to share their passion for creativity and the arts with high school students. In the fall, they introduce their creative practice to our students and the community through an exhibition of their artwork. This year's exhibit features a walk-in optical distortion chamber, a series of Roller Derby posters, an illustrated story about a little girl going to the zoo, street-scape paintings, portraits, and mysterious photographs to name a few. This year, we are honored to have such wonderful artists dedicated to our students. Here are brief biographies of a few: >> Melissa Mendes: Melissa makes comics. She grew up in the backwoods of Western Mass and just graduated from Hampshire College this past spring. She's worked (and still does) for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Mirage Studios), and interned at The Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont. Melissa just applied for a grant to publish a comic she made about a little girl in a hoodie who has a very active imagination, called "Adventures of a Kid." >> Richard Edouard-Denor is a promising new young voice on the Providence poetry circuit. He has preformed at poetry slams and open-mics throughout Rhode Island. He is a two-time semi-finalist for the Providence Youth Slam Team. Richard is an alumni of Youth In Action, a premier youth leadership organization where he served as board co-chair and coordinator of T.I.T.A.N. (Teens Informing Teens About Non-Violence), a peer outreach program at YIA. Currently a freshman at URI, Richard is dedicated to continue his commitment to high school students by volunteering at Youth In Action and New Urban Arts. >> Bremen Donovan grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia. She spent her first year of college at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts studying film and television. She is now a junior at Brown University, where she continues to pursue her passion for filmmaking. Bremen’s past experience includes several years at a youth media non-profit in Charlottesville, Lighthouse, working with high school students to create documentary, narrative, and animation films, as well as public service announcements and music videos. She is now looking to expand her interests into other media, as she begins hosting a bluegrass and Americana roots show at Brown Student Radio. In addition to her individual pursuits as an artist, Bremen deeply loves the collaborative process and is driven by her fiery devotion to community, which she plans to bring to New Urban Arts as an artist mentor. Make sure you come on Friday to meet the rest of our great crew! "Inspiring the Imaginer in All of Us: A Framework for a Sustainable Creative Practice" is now online New Urban Arts' mission is to prepare young people for a lifetime of creativity, what we call a "sustainable creative practice." For the past several years, staff and artist mentors at New Urban Arts have been defining what we mean by a sustainable creative practice and how to best make this possible for young people. This framework is now online, free, for you to read and apply in your life and community. Download here. Other resources online for you also include our 2006 Program Evaluation and our Poetry Workshop Planning Guide. New Urban Arts is interested in hearing from you about this publication. Share with us your thoughts by emailng us at info@newurbanarts.org. Subscribe to New Urban Arts' Podcast! If you haven't subscribed yet to New Urban Arts' podcast, then you missed the most recent posting of the magical "Alien Color Cartwheel," a brief animation experiment by a group of students. Next week, we will be posting a classic poem from New Urban Arts' archive, "Rise Boy." We will make a big promise and just say that it has the potential to significantly improve your day. Make sure you subscribe now. An exhibit of large-scale student self-portraits at Providence City Hall opens December 8th, the night of the annual tree lighting ceremony. What goes nicely with lighting the big, fabulous holiday tree at Providence City Hall? An exhibit of big, fabulous self-portraits by New Urban Arts' students! These 4'x5' self-portraits are representational and personal, made from a mosaic of different objects, materials, and colors. Be sure to stop by Providence City Hall after work on December 8th to check them out. ***** Thank you Sprint Systems of Photography. As always, the ever popular Tiny Showcase. Special thanks to White Whale Web Services, designers of www.newurbanarts.org. Also, proudly supported by: Feel free to forward this newsletter to your friends. About New Urban Arts |