Alas, summer has come to an end for students. Nevertheless, even though it has come to an end for them, the energy and momentum of progress that took place this year continue to move forward for Art for Progress, its team of professionals and the champion spirit passed on to each student who was part of our program. We built many memories around the program this year, seeing that it was our first face-to-face since the pandemic hit in March 2020.

From having guest speakers like Bill Claps, to enjoying live music sessions with Dezron Douglas, to viewing Gabriel Bullion’s star-studded portfolio of clients ranging from Jay-Z to North Face (a special edition puffer jacket designed exclusively for TNF). The line-up was electric, and every guest could share their retrospective of work and speak authentically from the heart. Their lived experiences- success or failure- were shared via storytelling and were a golden opportunity for the students to receive such heartfelt insight. It was extremely comforting to hear every professional speak earnestly of their mishaps and victories, making the pedagogical experience so close, personal, and authentic. I remember being an art student and sitting through talks where art professionals and designers seemed egocentric, chatting away about their successes but never delving deep into their failures and how they paved the way for success. Failures are the most prominent markers we tend to remember in life. We wanted the students to understand how those failures teach us to pivot in new ways, which may even lead us to reinvent our practice. Artist Bill Claps gave a great example when he presented his first works of art- abstractions of nudes. Claps’ work began in the most traditional form-nudes and human figures- but ended up exploring gilt, fashion and video.

The students were keen on the conversations and workshop, and we spotted a group that exhibited great natural talent in the arts. We had a core group that attended the music or art workshops every day.

Commitment was the A-game word in 2022, and our kids exemplified it. Each workshop was carefully tailored to cater to areas of interest, such as fashion (pattern-making) or composing sounds on Garageband. Every workshop offered the student a new hands-on approach, allowing them to explore the technique while having collaborative discussions. We provided workshops focused on skill sets they may need in the workforce and skills that could potentially land them an internship. For example, in fashion, the students learned how to create patterns. We took vintage garments, sprawled them out and used each piece to trace out a section of the garment. The idea was to motivate the student to take what they already own and find ways to understand and reinvent it. Knowing that Bullion was debuted to a younger audience whose interest circulated in fashion and were able to learn pattern-making techniques could potentially facilitate an internship at Bullion’s atelier for them. It is one of our goals to make opportunities accessible to the next generation of creatives. My students demonstrated exceptional interest and commitment over the summer, so I confidently recommend several for transitional and formative projects and employment. I challenged them in the mural-making course, which asked the student to begin with an individual idea board that would become a collaborative design, a preliminary sketch for a more significant project. We had a drawing ready to propose at the end of the six weeks. Now we have a preliminary sketch available to submit to any public art open call in the city of NYC. It was exciting to see what we achieved, individually and collaboratively, in 6 weeks.

Finally, to celebrate, I arranged a field trip to the Whitney Biennial to motivate them to keep working on their practice. The field trip was fun and a great way to relax after all the hard work and focus we had collectively invested. It was a bittersweet moment to bid everyone farewell, and realizing it was time to return to Miami made me cringe. There is no other city in the U.S.A. like NYC. Magic and creativity are everywhere. I know I brought that energy back to Miami. It is needed here. I also know NYC is pulling me back to nurture, evolve and develop my artistic practices and students. Where do we go from here, AFP?

More to come….…stay tuned, and watch this space! 

by Beláxis Buil

edited by Rachael (Global English Editing)