Facilitated by Seattle-based installation artist, Mandy Greer, a group of high school artists from around Washington state are investigating the topics of eco art, collaboration,
environmental installation, Craftivism, the DIY craft movement, and
temporary public art.
Part of Centrum's Summer High School Arts Camp, the artists are forming small collectives, learning a variety of fiber-based
techniques grounded in contemporary art practices, and creating a series
of Environmental Installations on the wilderness grounds of Fort Worden
State Park.
We look forward to having a campus of fine artist faculty working with 75 young artists, who are here to explore both familiar and brand new genres.
They will have 5 days of in-depth time in the studio to create new works and prepare a final presentation. The concentrated experience at Centrum is aimed at opening new pathways to creativity that provide life-long inspiration.
A huge round of thank you's to the students, teachers, parents, and chaperones who attended our 2010 Water World workshop. Low tides - combined with high energy and spirits - produced a week of incredible discovery and exploration for 5th and 6th graders from throughout Washington state.
This summer at Centrum's High School Summer Arts Camp, the opportunity is there for youth to take their talents to a new level. Why not just take it to the top? Register today!
Award winning poet Gary Lilley says this about his workshop for high school students at Centrum:
"Poetry has informed all my other writing: the fiction, the plays, and the essays all benefit from the attention to details, to the visual, to the word. This workshop will meet students where they are, and watch how the writing, all writing, gains greater dimension. I feel comfortable working with students wherever they are. This is the place to jazz up narratives and create sharp, memorable images in a supportive workshop setting with other young aspiring writers."
Nicco Annan is a choreographer, actor, and educator. See the results of some of his work with teens in this clip from a show with youth from Urban Word NYC + Dance Theatre Workshop performing in New York City. Directed by Tamilla Woodard, with choreography by Nicco Annan, their piece is called: Break the Mirror, Break the Image, Break the Mic.
The video features "The Insides Ain't Pink Enough and Diary of a Young Black Girl ," performed by Marne Bruckner & Alexis Marie.
Nicco and Erwin Thomas will be joining forces this summer to create a week of living theatrical magic at Centrum. With the use of colorful contemporary poetry, monologue/dialogue, and song, explore the passion, expression and technique behind musical theater performance. In "Musical & Legit Theater," students will journey through script annalysis, voice, and movement for the stage using text and music from shows that focus on youth such as "Rent" "Runaways" and "Brooklyn".
More about High School Summer Arts Camp (and its instructors)...
After her show in Seattle's SOIL Gallery in March, Centrum HSSAC instructor Vesna Pavlovic (Photographic Storytelling) presented her work at the Thessaloniki Photo Biennial in Greece. Her "Search for Landscapes" project occupied an old train compartment at the Mylos Gallery. Vesna's August workshop at Centrum is gearing up to be an exciting exploration of place (Fort Worden State Park), specifics of the art of photography, and digital technologies.
Eco-Art Installation teacher Mandy Greer's huge installation piece, Mater Matrix Mother and Medium will be traveling to Issaquah later this summer after its most recent installation in Kent. Next year it travels to the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in NYC. In 2012, Mandy will be traveling with Miko Kuro's Midnight Tea to take Mater Mother Matrix and Medium to Mumbai, India! In January 2011 she has a solo show of installation, sculptures and narrative/cinematic photographs at Roc La Rue Gallery in Seattle. Join Mandy and learn about creating art far outside the ordinary.
We were incredibly impressed by the young artists who attended. Energy, creativity, fearlessness - all were on display.
A hearty 'thank you' to each of the students who came. However, we would also like to thank the teachers, parents, chaperones, school districts, and community groups who quite literally make our Young Artist Project workshops possible.
We think that community investment of this sort affirms the critical roles that art, creativity, and problem-solving play in our daily lives. Bravo!
You will see images of students, teachers and artists all working together to master Combat Resolution, African Dance, Juggling, Taiko, Visual Art and Creative Writing.
The week was deemed "an awesome week of a creative arts workshop" by Blue Heron seventh grade student Francois Ballou in his letter published in the Port Townsend Leader on April 14, 2010.
Reading through the evaluations, one of the high points of the week echoed by students and teachers was learning all new things that they had never tried before. One seventh grader wrote, "I loved being introduced to different cultures and forms of art. In African dance I loved being able to just let go and move. I enjoyed the mechanics in Gizmos, [the visual art class], the excitement and uniqueness of combat, and the challenge of juggling."
Thanks to all who made this week possible for Port Townsend's Blue Heron 7th grade students and their teachers.
We're honored to have the entire 7th grade of Port Townsend at Centrum this week working with an amazing group of artists. Our friend Al McCleese is taking photos, and he has started to send some our way. We'll be posting a few of these over the next few days.
Kids are in the water, (in waders, of course!) on the beach, in science labs, drawing, writing and making music - about the marine life at the edge of the Salish Sea.
Currently Darwin Nordin is working on a series of intricate prints which continue to be inspired by observations of the natural world. Darwin is teaching visual art at Explorations and Water World.
Vesna Pavlovic's projects develop as anthropological studies, analyzing different cultures and their visual representations through particular phenomena. Vesna will be here this summer teaching photography at the High School Summer Arts Camp.
Mandy Greer has just completed work for “Zuster Sweostor Systir,” a companion show to her project from this past spring and summer “Mater Matrix Mother and Medium.” The show opens on First Thursday, February 4, 2010 at Ohge Ltd. Gallery in Seattle. At Explorations Mandy will show you how to transform a recycled piece of clothing into a costume, using all kinds of techniques not always considered "art."
