Category archives: Art for Progress
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3 months ago
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At Art for Progress we take great pride in the work that we do, and we are so proud of the many accomplishments and countless success stories over the years. Our summer program over the past seven years has been one of our great achievements. We were fortunate to have a wonderful partner in the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation. We appreciate their trust and unwavering support through some unprecedented challenging times. With their support, we had the opportunity to touch the lives of hundreds of NYC students looking to pursue careers in the arts, music and fashion.
As we celebrate our 20 year anniversary, it's been a time for reflection and appreciation for all of the people who have been part of this amazing journey. They say it takes a village. Well, it certainly takes a lot of dedicated people willing to work hard to fulfill a mission. So, thank you to everyone who played a huge or small role in it. With our grant for the summer program coming to an end after 7 years, our 2024 program had a different feel to it. As we look back, we are grateful for the opportunity and will cherish the experience.
The Matisse Foundation empowered and challenged us to be bold in our approach. They told us the most important thing is to adapt and be creative in trying to achieve impactful programming. We really took that to heart and each year we made a sincere effort to achieve that goal. During the pandemic, they told us it's alright to use the funds for general support. Y[...]
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Art for Progress (AFP) is set to launch its seventh annual summer program for NYC students in July. The program continues to evolve to address the needs of NYC’s young artists, musicians and designers attending public schools across NYC.
Funded by The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation, the program offers students interested in careers in the arts, and music, summer guidance and instruction. Over the 6-week program, select students will have the opportunity to work closely with professional artists across multiple genres including visual art, fashion design, music, and music production.
The program works with exceptional teachers with vast experience as both professional artists, teachers, and mentors. They bring the perfect balance of leadership and real-world knowledge that young artists desperately need in an increasingly competitive field. Please visit the links below for information on our teachers for 2024.
Visual Arts: Paula Walters Parker, Michael Alan, Fashion Design: Perryn Ford, Music Composition and Production: Ze’ Luis Oliveira, Music: Jerrell Battle
AFP is looking for those special students who are ready to take the next step in becoming a professional artist. We are creating a focused program based on mentorship and instruction, where a small group of students will work closely with professional artists who will guide them and prepare them for their next steps in their career development. Art for Progress is working closely with schools acro[...]
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1 year ago
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The 2023 summer program was full of highlights. The change
of focus to a more mentor-based program was successful and meaningful, where ambitious
projects led to outstanding results. Collaborative projects brought exceptional
experiences for our budding artists, while our special guest artists played an
important role for others. At the Lorge
School, Art for Progress purchased musical instruments that will bring a renewed
music program this fall. There’s one
thing that remains clear and present in the work that we do.
Access to the arts, music, and creative outlets for young people
could not be more important than it is right now. Everyone at Art for progress is very proud of
what’s been achieved over the last 6 years, and its bittersweet knowing that
next year will be our last year.
We set out in May with an ambitious goal of finding students across NYC who could benefit the most from our summer program. We brought posters and flyers to art, music, and fashion schools in the boroughs, hoping to connect with students who were willing to spend some of their precious time off in the summer with us. With the help of many people at the schools, we got a nice response, and ultimately an amazing group of students.
a fun photo collage...
The visual arts and music instruction program took place in
midtown Manhattan, while the fashion design program was held at designer
Gabriel Bullion’s studio in Brooklyn. AFP’s music production program was hosted
by[...]
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1 year ago
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by Beláxis Buil
Edited by Global English
Art for Progress’ 2023 summer program kicked off on a different note.
This year’s program was designed to mentor young aspiring creatives interested in pursuing a profession in art, fashion design, music, or film. But what made 2023 so different and special was how the sessions were tailored to help each student achieve individual goals. (In contrast, in 2022 a series of art workshops were offered—such as ceramics, installation art, drawing and watercolor—providing the students with opportunities to explore each medium a bit more, or for the first time.)
So, in 2023, following the first day of orientation at the art department, we began with an introduction to gauge each student’s interest in the arts and how long they have been practicing. Before they began their introduction, I modeled an introduction to help students understand how professional artists customarily introduce themselves to institutions, art galleries, collectors and fellow peers through language and written artist statements. This exercise aimed to situate the student’s mindset into thinking about what is really motivating them to create work and how their work will fit into a broader social conversation.
After the first half of the day, in which students focused deeply on their intentions and why they should think of their practice in terms of words, an array of visual artists such as Kara Walker, Kehinde Wiley, Glexis Novoa, and Roy Lichens[...]
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2 years ago
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Art for Progress (AFP) is set to launch its annual summer program for NYC public school students in July. Now in its sixth year, the program continues to evolve to address the needs of NYC’s young artists and musicians attending public schools across NYC.
The program, funded by The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation, offers students interested in careers in the arts and music, summer guidance and instruction. For 2023, the program will shift to a mentorship focused program that offers select students the opportunity to work closely with professional artists across multiple genres including visual art, fashion design, music, and music production.
Teaching artist Paula Parker addressing students- Art for Progress Summer Arts Program
The long running program endured the challenging COVID years by creating an impactful online program that continued through 2021. In 2022, Art for Progress was very pleased to receive a three-year renewal for the funding of the program from The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation in 2022. With much joy, we returned to normal, in-person programming last year. A focused group of students and our energized teachers made the 2022 program a big success.
Knowing the foundations approach and goals for the summer program, AFP’s Founder Frank Jackson set out to make the 2023 program the best one yet. The message from the foundation has always been, what will you do to improve the program, and how will the program evolve over time to addres[...]
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2 years ago
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Photography Exhibition, Fotografisca, New York, January 26, 2023 - May 21, 2023
We had the pleasure of visiting the museum and viewing this groundbreaking exhibit last week. The museum alone was a fun, enlightening experience. Rather than the stuffy, quiet, almost sterile environment one comes to expect at a museum, Fotografisca is warm, inviting, and bustling with activity. They encourage you to grab a drink while you view the exhibition. So, that's what we did.
1985, Josh Cheuse, "Beastie Boys Radio City New York, 1985"
The exhibition, featuring many rare works of over 50 artists spans the history of hip hop and the culture. Ranging from iconic staples of visual culture (presented with new context) to rare and intimate portraits of hip-hop’s biggest stars, the works on view traverse intersecting themes such as the role of women in hip-hop; hip-hop’s regional and stylistic diversification and rivalries; a humanistic lens into the 1970s-Bronx street gangs whose members contributed to the birth of hip-hop; and the mainstream breakthrough that saw a grassroots movement become a global phenomenon
1992, Jesse Frohman, "LL, LLCool J"
“It's easy to forget that there was a time before hip-hop was an industry and before it made money,” said Sacha Jenkins, exhibition co-curator and Chief Creative Officer of Mass Appeal, who came of age in New York's hip-hop scene of the 1980s (b. 1971). “It wasn't conscious of itself. It was just existing with young people livin[...]
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2 years ago
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Great films capture stories that are worth telling, and more and more filmmakers are able to make films because of the evolution of cameras. From the top-of-the-range 35mm and RED cameras used in Hollywood blockbusters to the 16mm and digital cameras used by independent filmmakers, there are a wide range of options available. This allowed filmmakers like Richard “R.G.” Miller to acquire a cheap camera and begin making movies in his early teens. Today’s movies are being created with new-generation cameras, such as the ones offered by IMAX. An article by The Hollywood Reporter reveals that renowned filmmaker Christopher Nolan has shot Oppenheimer, which focuses on the life of physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, with IMAX film cameras. If you want to learn more about the different cameras used by various directors, read on.
35mm filmmaking cameras
Thomas Edison is credited with inventing the very first 35mm motion picture camera. According to a 2020 No Film School feature titled ‘When Were Cameras Invented?’, Edison and his team developed the device in the early 1980s. Once done, the Kinetograph was able to take a series of photos on 35mm film stock. By 1895, Louis and Auguste Lumiere invented the Cinematographe, which took and projected film. Since then, most movies were shot on 35mm until digital cameras became more popular. Interestingly, a 2022 Filmmaker write-up shows that various directors continue to debut features that are shot on 35mm. For one, Michael Mor[...]
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2 years ago
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Over the last several years if not longer, there's been an exodus of nightclubs in Manhattan. High rents and the burgeoning scene in Brooklyn took a toll on the once king of the boroughs for nightlife.
Over the last 6 months, some new spots began to pop up in the city. Last Thursday night I decided to check out this new club called Virgo in the LES. Some DJ friends were talking about it online. So, I decided to venture down to Grand Street to see what this new spot had to offer.
Upon arriving, there was a small cue with some dudes in line that had no shot at making it inside. A rather funny conversation was going on, but we won't get into that. The maze like entrance led us to a long bar where we grabbed some lovely drinks from Luciano (bartender) before finding our way to the main area, dance floor. The first thing that caught my attention, was the high quality sound and the creative lighting that brought a cool vibe to the room. The DJs were spinning some funky tech house for a fun mix of downtown clubbers who were ready to party.
Virgo is a refreshing addition to the NYC nightlife scene and a spot where you can hear quality house music without all the hang ups of going to a big club in Brooklyn.
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2 years ago
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Courtesy of Kino Lorber
An intriguing new film from Chase Joynt, Framing Agnes is a docudrama hybrid that delves into a notorious 1960s gender health study at UCLA. Using reenactments, the film fleshes out several of the study's transgender subjects, including the titular pseudonymous Agnes, who became renowned for "tricking" UCLA in to obtain gender-affirming surgery at a time when such procedures were only done abroad and trans Americans were little seen or understood.
At the beginning of the film, we see news footage of trans pioneer Christine Jorgensen, then one of the most famous women in the world. At the time (1950s) her blond, glamorous image (representing the apex of American femininity) was one of the few public representations — and for many, the only one — of a transgender woman. Joynt then introduces us to six subjects of the UCLA study portrayed by trans actors including Angelica Ross (Pose), Jen Richards (Mrs. Fletcher), and Zackary Drucker (Transparent), as they reenact actual interviews with sociologist Harold Garfinkel (played by Joynt himself), taken directly from unearthed transcripts. They are a cross-section of America, including the blonde, glamorous Agnes (Drucker); church-going African-American Georgia (Ross), and midwestern, working-class Denny (Silas Howard); all of them sharp, thoughtful, and crystal clear about themselves and their place in society at the time. Filmed in black and white, these scenes are fraught with tamped down emotion as [...]
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2 years ago
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Image courtesy of "You Resemble Me"
Boasting an impressive list of producers––including Spike Lee, Riz Ahmed, Alma Har’el, and Spike Jonze––Dina Amer’s gripping and deeply affecting directorial debut You Resemble Me dramatizes the sad and embattled life of Hasna Ait Boulahcen, a young woman who was falsely depicted as Europe’s first female suicide bomber after the 2015 Paris bombings. The first part of the film portrays Hasna and her younger sister Mariam (played with realistic lack of inhibition by real-life sisters Lorenza and Ilonna Grimaudo) as they navigate life in in the suburbs of Paris. Moroccan immigrants, they live in a multi-racial housing complex with their overwhelmed, abusive mother and two other siblings. Despite life’s challenges and the neighborhood’s roughness, the closely bonded Hasna and Mariam manage to have fun playing and running through the streets. With its naturalistic action, dialogue and characters, the film is instantly compelling. Amer presents her story in a straightforward yet often poetic way; it's easy to get drawn into the lives of these scrappy sisters.
Dina Amer (photo: Kevin Scanlon)
During an impromptu birthday celebration for Mariam, their mother attempts to collect her daughter's gifts to sell for cash. Hasna rebels, running away with Mariam in tow. They take the train into the city, where they sleep in a park in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower and snatch food from street vendors. Eventually the girls are apprehended (not for[...]
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2 years ago
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Mixed Greens, Saturday, November 12th
Art for Progress “Mixed Greens” series continues November 12th with a
retrospective in art featuring many artists who have exhibited with AFP over
the past 20 years. Paintings, photography, collage, mixed media, digital art,
illustrations and more will be part of the show. New work and older work will
be included in the show, while some of the work to be exhibited is held in
private collections.
The stories of
the artists and work are vast, and some very powerful. For example, we'll be
showing artwork from street artist Jef Campion (Army of One) who was a fireman,
artist, activist and volunteer. Jeff was a first responder on that
unforgettable day, 9/11. Jef dedicated his time to art and activism as a result
of that experience. Sadly, in 2014 Jef took his own life, but the power of his
life’s work lives on. A mural was dedicated in his honor at a ceremony in his
hometown of Yonkers a few years ago. We look forward to sharing his work with you,
as the message hits home today with the horrific war in Ukraine.
The show will
also feature work by illustrator, Don Sipley. Don also passed away some years
back. He was a kind soul who was well recognized as a leading commercial
illustrator in publishing and fashion. Don was very generous and appreciative
of Art for Progress, where he donated his services and time on many occasions.
Other stories
include, noted, early Burning Man photographer Gabe Kirchheimer, who's work was
feature[...]
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