For the first session the kids took a look at the events leading to the creation of the opera (John Long’s story, David Belasco’s play); learned the characters – who’s who in the opera, relationships, character profile and synopsis of the opera.

Saturday March 17th and March 24th, in a beautiful space located in Chelsea, The Pure Space, kindly offered by Rida Chin, seventeen kids focused and enthusiastically learned the basic rules of stop-motion animation. The title of the film was “Another Day at the Pet-store”. At the end of the workshop the kids showed their films to their families and we had a little party with mini hamburgers, pop-corn, chicken fingers and others delicious treats. Thank you to everyone involved for a very successful workshop!

Students from Clinton Middle School and seniors from the Fulton House in Chelsea started a new workshop with artist Jenny Marketou in Collaboration with Otto Von Busch.

The kids and the seniors started to think about a flag which represents themselves and then created these flags by cutting out different colors of felt and ironing on letters and images.

The kids spent the entire afternoon listening to famous soundtracks of great movies like Forrest Gump, The Piano, The Blues Brothers, Pirates of the Caribbean, Titanic, and others!  In the end they watched short movie clips that corresponded to the scenes. The paintings are amazing interpretations of those scenes!

Two talented musicians – Phil Faconti and Dino Vasilakos – one a guitar player and the other a piano one, played a variety of genres from jazz to blues to bossa nova, struck the kids. The students were asked to “paint their soul” (a la Kandinsky) while listening to the music. As soon as the music started, something magical happened: every child looked into his soul and started to paint. At the end, Phil played a few pieces (Prelude 1^st and Prelude 4^th) by Brazilian composer Villa Lobos. The kids gathered around him mesmerized by the music and by Phil’s fingers flying on its guitar.

To create the installation Joan Jonas conceived of a fairytale-like video installation with sculptural elements such as an artificial lawn, cut-out free-standing rabbits as well as rabbit drawings blown up on the walls.

Jonas also cropped and projected the video onto a circular screen hanging from the ceiling that represented the moon from the myth.

The installation also incorporated the actual student made mask used to portray the rabbit in the video.

Luceplan, who hosted our exhibit between March 5 and 11th was very hospitable and a stunning place to hold the opening. Many thanks go out to Luceplan!

Click here for more information about the project.

.

Photos by Adam Kaynan

The kids took pictures of the High Line. They learned how to photograph landscapes and portraits in black and white or with vivid colors. Inspired and struck by the panoramic view they captured beautiful images!

This past October Xaviera Simmons set up an outdoor studio in the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses where she met and took portraits of the residents of these communities. Last night was the opening of two concurrent exhibitions for Xaviera Simmons’ “When You’re Looking At Me, You’re Looking At Country“. The event also marks the first time in Hudson Guild’s history that they are holding related shows simultaneously in both of their community centers.

Over 90 framed portraits are arranged randomly in each gallery to promote the relationship between two housing areas that are separated by six blocks between 9^th and 10^th avenues in Chelsea and whom like siblings have a history of both cooperation and animosity. One of the goals of this project was to bring all of the residents together to promote the diversity and heritage represented amongst the neighborhoods.

Many participants attended, and were happy to share their experiences with one another and invite friends to see their portrait. When the shows conclude, participants will be invited to take their respective work of art home with them.  We thank everyone involved for their support and participation. We encourage those who have not done so to visit the Hudson Guild galleries and get know the neighborhood and its residents!

Guild Gallery II – 119 9th Ave (Weds, Thurs & Fri 3- 6p)

Hudson Guild Gallery – 441 W 26th Street (Tues – Fri 10 – 7p & Sat 1 – 4p)

The kids were challenged at first with questions about their views on photography. Here are some of the things they said:
“Photography, it’s a way to catch reality…”,
“It’s a way to express myself in a different manner…”,
“It’s a way to look at how life is, but in a different way…”,
“There’s a meaning behind photos…”.

Meeting with the Associated Press photographers, the world’s oldest and largest news gathering organization, helped the students further understand the world of photography. Senior HR administrator Xavier Williams gave them a tour of the facilities where they had the opportunity to meet two of the agency’s photographers, Bebeto Matthews and Donald King, who inspired the kids with stories of their harrowing and moving experiences.

]]> http://www.moreart.org/%e2%80%9cthe-picture-has-to-be-as-real-as-possible%e2%80%9d-ap-tour-with-mary-giancoli/feed/ 0 http://www.moreart.org/field-trip-to-the-flag-art-foundation/ http://www.moreart.org/field-trip-to-the-flag-art-foundation/#comments Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:23:16 +0000 admin http://www.moreart.org/?p=3319 Read more]]> Clinton Middle School students took a field trip to the FLAG Art Foundation on December 20th.

First they learned from art handlers how you pack, protect, ship, and install works for a show, then they saw the installation “Fallen” by Jane Hammond, where she created a special leaf for each soldier who died in Iraq.

It was a fitting way to close the year, pondering concepts of loss, memory and hope.