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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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7 years ago
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We recently caught up with the guys from the band Big Sweater to discuss their music, inspiration and their exciting new album they're currently recording.
In one way or another, members of the band have all been part of AFP's music education programs over the years. So, we're very proud and excited to see how they've progressed and evolved as artists. Check out "Platform Stare," a single from the new album.
Platform Stare by Big Sweater
1) What inspired you guys to become musicians, writers?
Collectively what inspired us to be musicians is that of which was instilled in us by our parents and their taste for the most part. Being shown things that would be considered "old school". Those things later becoming memories and what is now sense of nostalgia of car rides and long trips throughout the years subconsciously planting a seedling in a driving force that is creating sound as well as putting words together that sum up how we feel.
2) How would you describe your sound?
Our sound is derivative of multiple things that boil down for the most part to blues. Our upcoming album has a combination of really somber and light tunes and also some really upbeat ones but overall our sound is very mellow.
3) Have you been playing the songs off the new album live, and if so how has the crowd responded to the new songs?
We've played most of the upcoming album in a rotation for about a year now, the crowd now sings along and its one of the most gratifying feelings[...]
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12 years ago
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Another exciting school year has ended and AFP's impact and our programs continue to grow. The Sansom Foundation recently awarded Art for Progress a $20,000 grant which was a thirty percent increase over last year's grant! We are ecstatic that the foundation has increased their support for the program. Though the funds are very important we believe the vote of confidence from the Sansom Foundation is even more important as we focus on applying for more funds to expand our important work in the NYC Public Schools.
A special thank you goes out to Barry Komitor who has been instrumental in the development of the program in many ways. His passion and dedication to the organization and the students is unwavering. If we just had a few more Barry Komitors, we can do so much more!
In the following video, Barry and some of our students at Bronxdale High School offer some insight into AFP's Music Program. Thanks to our intern Fred Hua for doing such a great job working on this video.
http://youtu.be/8I7Drhip1JM
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