CAP - CalArts
Transcription
CAP - CalArts
THE NEWSLETTER OF THE CALARTS COMMUNITY ARTS PARTNERSHIP (CAP) no. 05 SPRING 08 • cap.calarts.edu • { CAP } calarts community arts partnership re:CAP Newsletter Production SPRING Issue 2008 Number 5 Newsletter Director: Evelyn Serrano Editors: Glenna Avila Carribean Fragoza Evelyn Serrano Contributors: Karen Atkinson Glenna Avila Nancy Buchanan Juliet Fine Carribean Fragoza Vicki Grise Joshua Parr Paul Sherman Jim Ventress Photographers: Glenna Avila Betty Lee Scott Groller Rachel Slowinski Designer: Juliana Sankaran-Felix All artwork is by CAP youth participants Director's Statement The CalArts Community Arts Partnership (CAP) program is celebrating eighteen years of providing young artists of Los Angeles County with a premiere arts education through offering innovative after-school, school-based, and summer arts programs free-of-charge and located in 53 diverse neighborhoods. CAP is able to bring 49 different youth arts training programs to thousands of young people this year by creating and sustaining mutually beneficial partnerships with 41 outstanding arts and youth organizations, and public schools. Director's Statement * Between Iraq and a Hard Place * CAP Partner Profile: Maria Jimenez-Torres * The New Generation’s Los Angeles * Start with a Bang! * Inside Reaching Out * On the Road * CAP's Teaching Artists Forum * CAP-Activating NEWS BRIEFS CALARTS CAP SPRING 2008 CALENDAR SPRING 2008 CAP CLASS SCHEDULE This widespread, de-centralized effort results in our ability to work with nearly 15,000 teenagers each year, many of whom return to participate in CAP programs over several years, until they graduate high school and begin their college careers. Nearly 100% of CAP participants graduate from high school! One of our goals in CAP is that our youth participants be given the necessary, and sometimes inaccessible, tools to access higher education. Over 75% of our participants report that they have attended or are attending colleges throughout the United States. And 99% of the high school students attending the CAP Summer Arts Program, our pre-college mentorship program, reported that they will be applying to and attending college. We are deeply interested in continuing to connect with and learn about the tens of thousands of young artists who have been participants and student instructors in the CAP program over the past eighteen years. CAP has definitely entered the Virtual World with our CAP My Space which is designed for our CAP youth participants and can be accessed at http://www.myspace.com/ calartscap. For the CAP student instructors, we have designed a blog to further the profession of teaching artists and the discourse surrounding artists working in communities. This blog can be accessed at http://capinstructors. blogspot.com. And most recently, we have added a CAP Channel on You Tube at http://youtube.com/CalArtsCAP. Here you can view the latest animated films, video pieces, and performances produced by CAP youth participants with CalArts student instructors and faculty members. Some of the highlights of this season are featured in this issue and include the CAP/Plaza de la Raza youth theater production of "Private Eddie U.S.A." This year our participants had the wonderful opportunity to work with playwright and actor Herbert Siguenza of Culture Clash and their original play will open on May 1, 2008. The CAP photography students participated in a photography workshop and field trip with well-known photographer Julius Shulman, and exhibited their work along side him at the Los Angeles Central Library, organized by the Getty Research Institute. CAP launched a Teaching Artists Forum and brought artists such as John Malpede, Mady Schutzman, and Ricardo Dominguez to speak about their artistic practices which connect to specific communities. Most importantly, we have been asking "what is our role as teaching artists and how do we train our students to be active artistcitizens in this changing world?" As artist and CalArts School of Art faculty member Karen Atkinson writes, "the more artists begin to participate in all aspects of a community, such as running for office, running businesses, creating workshops, making work, engaging in politics and education, the better off a community will be." Chicana artist, CAP Instructor, and CalArts School of Theater graduate student Virginia Grise writes, "I believe in the revolutionary potential of an art that is created from communities that have been traditionally silenced, in an art that is transformative, that teaches us something about who we are and the world around us." Each day in the CAP program we strive to provide the young artist participants and our CalArts student instructors with the tools they need to find and use their voices in art and become creative, productive, innovative citizens of our world. This is a very exciting time for CAP! Please join us in celebrating the eighteenth year of CAP by dancing under the stars to the vibrant sounds of the CalArts Salsa Band at Plaza de la Raza on Friday, May 2, 2008 at 10:00 p.m. We look forward to seeing you then and at the dozens of free CAP arts events we are producing this season. GLENNA AVILA Director, CalArts Community Arts Partnership NON-PROFIT U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #18 SANTA CLARITA, CA THE NEWSLETTER OF THE CALARTS COMMUNITY ARTS PARTNERSHIP (CAP) C O M M U N I T Y A R T S P A R T N E R S H I P CAP CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS 24700 MCBEAN PARKWAY SANTA CLARITA CALIFORNIA 91355 tel fax email 661 222 2708 661 222 2726 cap@calarts.edu www.cap.calarts.edu www.myspace.com/calartscap http://youtube.com/CalArtsCAP { } 3 Between Iraq and a Hard Place by CARRIBEAN FRAGOZA CAP Summer Arts Program Coordinator and CalArts School of Critical Studies alumna In silence, a flurry of students dart to and fro across the stage, throwing pretend grenades, shooting imaginary guns. Most of them smiling self-consciously, almost nervously. Herbert Siguenza asks them to stop and imagine how their bodies would move if they had just been hit by gunfire. He demonstrates in slow motion, jolting his body as if being hit by bullets, and going into very very slow convulsions as he falls to the ground finally dead. His eyes roll back into his head and tongue drops out. The students erupt into laughter. CAP/Plaza de la Raza Theater students and Culture Clash’s Herbert Siguenza use comedy to tread deep into history’s dark territory of war and violence With renewed focus, the students try it out for themselves again on the stage’s battlefield. Herbert instructs one student to throw a grenade at the “enemy”. Another student on the opposite side of the stage catches on as the imaginary grenade lands at his feet and throws his body back and lands loudly as if blown away by a violent explosion. Everyone laughs, especially Siguenza. “That was great,” he calls out, catching his breath. It’s exciting for everyone when students begin breaking out of their shy inhibitions to try out Siguenza’s style of highly physical comedy. Herbert Siguenza, accomplished actor and playwright is writing this year’s play with CAP/Plaza de la Raza Theater students. So far, it has been a learning experience not only for students, but also for Herbert. A seasoned actor with over 20 years of experience in theater with Culture Clash, Herbert is new to working with youth. Although he and his Culture Clash peers have lectured and conducted workshops with college students, Herbert is now discovering a new realm of community arts education with these young actors by doing what he does best --address political, historical and cultural issues through personal, deeply human stories of individuals with his unfailing humor. 1 After more than 20 years of working almost exclusively with Culture Clash and touring throughout the country, Siguenza has decided to dig his roots deeper into L.A. The best way for him to connect with its communities, he has decided, is through teaching. Together with students and CAP instructors, Herbert is opening up fresh opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration, which has been a hallmark of Herbert Siguenza’s and Culture Clash’s work, although typically directed to adults. When it is applied with young students it makes for new and interesting possibilities. Herbert joins the ranks of distinguished writers that for 18 years, have written original plays with students in the CAP program. In the past, CAP and Plaza de la Raza youth theater participants have had the unique pleasure and opportunity to collaborate closely with distinguished writers such as Olivia Chumacero, Nancy de los Santos, Bernardo Solano, Peter Howard, Jose Cruz Gonzalez, Amparo Garcia, Mady Schutzman, Theresa Chavez, and Rose Portillo, among others. And year after year, these writers have not only demonstrated unfailing dedication to their art, but also a genuine passion for using their art as a tool to work with community youth and to address pressing issues that interest them and affect their lives. Students stage their play at Plaza’s Margo Albert Theater and at the Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater (REDCAT) in downtown Los Angeles. Herbert is mostly known for his work as one of the three members of Culture Clash, along with Ric Salinas and Richard Montoya, which has become the most prominent Chicano/Latino performance troupe in the country. Founded in San Francisco’s Mission District in 1984, Culture Clash has been committed to addressing historical and cultural issues through their unique style of politically-inspired, high-energy comedy. Their performances have ranged from sketch comedy to full-length plays such as Chavez Ravine, Zorro in Hell, and Water and Power that have earned them the respect of the theater and Latino communities. Herbert was first invited by CAP Director Glenna Avila to write a play with Plaza de la Raza theater students in November 2006 when Herbert and Richard Montoya attended the Ovation Awards ceremony where CAP students were honored by the LA Stage Alliance for their play Upset!, written by CalArts School of Critical Studies faculty Mady Schutzman. Months later, in conversation with Rose Cano and Maria Jimenez-Torres of Plaza de la Raza, Herbert agreed to not only write the play with the CAP/Plaza de la Raza Youth Theater participants, but to also teach a comedy class at Plaza de la Raza. Since October, Siguenza has been writing a play with the CAP/Plaza de la Raza theater students, inspired by El Teatro Campesino’s El Soldado Razo. The play, written by Luis Valdez (best known for Zoot Suit and La Bamba) and El Teatro Campesino in 1971, is about a young man from the barrio who enlists in the army during the Vietnam War. El Soldado Razo, (which loosely translates to “the unrecognized soldier”) was written and performed as a strategy to raise community awareness about the disproportionate number of casualties of young Latino males in Vietnam. This year, the war being addressed is not Vietnam but Iraq. Yet the characters and the story remain essentially the same. According to Siguenza, this story has been repeated many times throughout U.S. history. Herbert describes the main character, “Eddie,” as a “typical kid from the barrio.” Eddie is looking for a way out of a difficult situation where cycles of poverty, fueled by low access to higher education, make for a seemingly inescapable situation. Like many young men who enlist in the military, Eddie is motivated not by patriotic zeal, but rather by a sincere desire to help his family financially and pursue a college education. According to Herbert, it’s a combination of these factors that “make him an easy target for recruiters.” You might think that high school students would take agitprop-style, politics and historyinspired themes for this year’s play like swallowing stale, dry wheat toast with nothing to wash it down, but in fact, theater students at Plaza have already written and staged plays dealing with heavy, often political or historical topics with enthusiasm. And acclaim. In 2006, students collaborated with CalArts Critical Studies Faculty, Mady Schutzman, on Upset!, a play based on the 1992 L.A. uprisings. In previous years, writers and students have presented 500 years of Latino history and politics in Tropical America, family violence in One Gun Family, and issues of arts appropriation in Jacked! The Mystery of the Missing Muse, among other topics. Of course, it’s not easy to get this style “done right” as Herbert notes. “Stylistically, it’s very challenging,” he says, which is why it has become so important for students to commit to the style. “Herbert is the first writer that has taught the methodology of how he works, and that teaches us techniques that work in service of the performance aesthetic,” says BJ Dodge, director of the CAP/Plaza de la Raza Youth Theater Program. Students had the opportunity to learn about the reality of war from someone who experienced it personally. Manuel Cuchilla, CalArts Character Animation alumnus and CAP animation instructor, shared his experience in Iraq, serving as a sergeant in the U.S. Army. According to BJ, students were riveted by Manuel’s stories, which they used to inform their own work as they imagine what it would be like to experience the violence of war. And while many often think of writing (play writing included) as a primarily cerebral process, Herbert and the youth theater participants use their bodies to write this year’s play. “It’s very physical,” says Herbert, something that can be challenging for students that feel shy or nervous about using their bodies. “They are learning to speak in a clear, physically-based way,” says BJ. However, the physical challenge is a particularly exciting opportunity for Marvin Tunney, CAP Movement Instructor at Plaza de la Raza and CalArts School of Theater faculty. “We always have movement and music in the CAP productions, but this is the first time we have had the writer come to the movement workshops. It really makes me feel more a part of the entire process,” says Marvin. “Highly physical theater is something that Herbert is really good at doing,” says BJ Dodge, primarily because it is what Culture Clash, Herbert’s theater group, is so well known for. “Students are learning about how to use their bodies to speak and to tell a story.” As a result, instructors and students utilize interdisciplinary collaboration to unprecedented levels. Instructors also teach collaboration to students by example. Marvin adds that it is interesting for students to watch the instructors work together and follow directions. “Herbert asks us (the instructors) to do something and we all try it out and the kids get to see.” One thing that students have discovered during the past few months is that nothing is what it appears. For instance, on stage a harmless tambourine becomes a bomb in the hands of a child. It hits the ground in an explosion of sound in a crowded marketplace. And then time seems to hold its breath and slows down to a painstaking speed. Slowly, students push their bodies into the air, away from the nucleus of the bomb. Slowly, they crash onto the floor, their faces distorted with horror and pain, crying in silence. Although it may not look like a game, this is actually an exercise Herbert has been doing with the students for the past few months called “25 Counts”. After an unexpected “explosion” takes place, students break down the actions and slow down their movements to a count of 25. “This exercise in particular,” says Marvin Tunney, “requires actors to inform themselves of the mystery of war and death. It makes them look into themselves.” The experience has also made students think about how these wars in distant countries affect their own lives. “It’s weird how even little kids protect their country. I can’t imagine my little brother holding a bomb,” says Cindy Luna. This realization has been a particularly poignant and personal one for Cindy. When her 17 year-old brother first told his family he wanted to join the military, Cindy couldn’t understand why her mother was so upset. “I thought he would be okay, that he could take care of himself.” It wasn’t until she played the role of a mother whose son had been killed that she realized the devastating consequences of war. “Now I see why she’s scared for him. I don’t want him to go either.” However, Cindy adds, like many young people, her brother does not understand the risks. She hopes that when her brother sees the play in May, he will change his mind. While the violence that students play out in their exercises may strike some as unconventional, if not disturbing, BJ Dodge believes that it is a natural part of play. “It goes way back. It’s kind of primordial.” Theater in fact, she points out, is driven by conflict that is also violent in its own way. “In theater, you’re fighting to win.” “What I think is that if we’re a theater program and we find ourselves as artists and citizens in a moment of upheaval, artists are bound to embrace subjects of importance. We’ve never shrunk from dealing with these issues,” says BJ Dodge. Private Eddie U.S.A. Performances at Plaza de la Raza m ay 1 , 2 , 3 , 9 , 2 0 0 8 at 7 : 3 0 p m m ay 1 0 , 2 0 0 8 , at 2 : 0 0 p m a n d 7 : 3 0 p m at REDCAT: m ay 2 3 a n d 2 4 , 2 0 0 8 , at 7 : 3 0 p m All performances are free and open to the public. Reservations are strongly advised. For performances at Plaza de la Raza please call 323 223-2475. For REDCAT performances please call 213 237-2800. However, when Eddie finally arrives to the battlefront, he discovers that the war was not what he thought it would be. “It’s disheartening when he thinks he’d be doing something right and he realizes that it’s not. Morale totally goes down,” says Herbert. Herbert had written another version of “Eddie” in 1982 about a young Salvadoran-American man who is sent to fight as part of the U.S.’ military aid in El Salvador’s decade-long, bloody civil war in the ‘80’s. “These ‘Eddies’ have always existed, whether it’s Vietnam, Korea, or El Salvador,” says Herbert. “We are trying to educate kids more about their place in history.” Although his 1982 version of “Eddie” was never produced and remained in a dusty pile for 25 years, theater students at Plaza are helping Herbert bring a new version of Eddie to life. “This is agitprop, which many disqualify as bad art.” “But agitprop,” Siguenza assures, “can be very good if done right.” Over the years agitprop has taken a negative connotation and has been often associated with propaganda. Clearly, Siguenza is not hesitant about reclaiming agitprop, and introducing it to CAP and Plaza de la Raza students. 2 1 Herbert Siguenza 2 CAP/Plaza de la Raza Theater program { session led by BJ Dodge and Herbert Siguenza } 3 Manuel Cuchilla, CAP instructor and CalArts School of Film/Video alumnus talks to the participants about his experiences as a US Army Sergeant in Iraq 2 3 Maria Jimenez-Torres EDUCATION DIRECTOR, PLAZA DE LA RAZA The city of Los Angeles is often misunderstood as a mere replica of many other cities with no true identity of its own. However, the people who truly know the spirit of L.A. know that its character is not in stasis but in its constant transformation and reinvention of itself. by CARRIBEAN FRAGOZA CAP Summer Arts Program Coordinator and CalArts School of Critical Studies alumna Our Community is Everybody Maria Jimenez-Torres can be a very difficult person to get a hold of, and even more difficult to schedule an interview with –but I’m not mad about it. I have witnessed that no matter how busy she can get with a neverending chain of meetings, phone calls and visits, Maria is also amazingly accessible. However contradictory this sounds, its true. Just about everyone who knows Maria feels they can approach her for nearly anything from proposing a new project, to sharing the latest episode in their personal life’s telenovela. { Maria Jimenez-Torres, with her son Gabriel Torres and the Plaza de la Raza Theater Program students on a field trip to see a performance of Culture Clash’s “Zorro in Hell”. } Maria began her life at Plaza the way many of its students often do. As a teenager growing up in City Terrace, a neighborhood slightly south east of Lincoln Heights, Maria was responsible for dropping off and picking up her younger siblings to music and art classes at Plaza. Finding herself spending a significant amount of time at Plaza, Maria decided to try out her musical talents and started taking piano classes while she waited for her younger brother Gabriel Jimenez. “And one day they asked me to volunteer for the Frida Kahlo exhibit.” Maria recalls how she was invited to help at one of Plaza’s well-known exhibitions, which in the past have also included the works of David Alfaro Siqueiros and more recently, actor Cheech Marin’s collection of Chicana/o art. Soon after, she was then offered a part-time job as an assistant to the school coordinator, who at the time was Doris Hausmann, currently the Director of Arts Education at the Armory Center for the Arts, a former CAP partner. Not long after that, Maria was offered the position she currently holds. Maria remembers Glenna Avila coming to Plaza, and working with them to establish a theater program, which has remained one of the most consistently successful programs. Soon after, theater was followed by music, puppetry, digital media and dance programs. “Working closely with Maria and Plaza over the past 18 years of the CAP program has been a complete highlight for me," states Glenna Avila, CAP Director. "Our philosophies of arts education are extremely close and overlap in many areas. A partnership of this magnitude and duration can only be successful when we work continually towards shared goals and mutual successes. This 18-year collaboration is a testimony to our commitment to creating the highest quality arts programs for youth and together we have strived to build a community.” If you walk into Maria’s office, that she shares with her younger brother Gabriel who also now works at Plaza as well as her assistant and former CAP youth participant Mayra Ponce, it is not uncommon to find students sitting at one of the desks silently absorbed in their textbooks, or scribbling out an essay or series of math equations. Most students know that they can come here to find some quiet to finish their homework. In fact, Maria notes that students at Plaza are also more motivated to excel in their school studies. “Many students want to get good grades. They are more focused and always busy. Plaza becomes their safe haven. Many kids have said that Plaza is like their second home.” This is not difficult to believe when I see the tightly-knit friendships that grow and confide in Maria. For Maria and her family, who on weekdays can be found at Plaza well into the evening and often on weekends, Plaza de la Raza is quite literally a home away from home. “My kids were born into the program. I was pregnant with all three of them while working here.” Currently, all three of her sons, Jorge, 7, Gabriel 14 and Mario Eztli Torres 16, are also students in several classes at Plaza, including the CAP music, theater and puppetry programs. “I love that I always have my kids around, I always know where they are and what they’re doing.” Even her husband, Mario Torres, frequently finds himself at Plaza. As a math teacher at Eastmont Middle School, Mario often invites some of his students and with the permission of their parents, gives them rides to Plaza for classes and back home. He has also worked with the theater class, teaching Nahuatl, an indigenous Mexican language. By five in the afternoon, most people are ready to call it a day and rest up for the following morning. However, at nine, sometimes ten in the evening Maria is still going. If you drop in on a weekend, Plaza is usually open, as it has several Saturday morning classes as well. It’s also not uncommon to walk into a family festival or Day of the Dead altar-making workshop or community Christmas party where hundreds of people from all parts of Los Angeles gather in Plaza’s colorful patios. The CAP participants’ prints in the exhibition were on display through January 20, 2008 and were the fruit of nearly three months of work inspired by their studies of Julius Shulman’s photography of architecture in Los Angeles. Students met every Monday afternoon in CalArts’ Photography Lab with CAP Photography instructors John Bache, Andy Freeman and Alyssa Gorelick and CAP student instructors Alex Sanchez, Bart Folkerts, Lindsay Foster, and Angie Rizzo, who guided them through an exploration of the medium and introduced many of them for the first time, to Shulman’s distinguished body of work and unique approaches to photography. One has to wonder, how does she keep energized? “I have to be there. Everyone is counting on me to make things happen.” Her job is also a labor of love, “I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else.” So every morning, Maria makes her daily journey from her home in Phillips Ranch, on the far eastern end of Los Angeles County bordering San Bernardino, to Lincoln Heights. And every evening, after a full day of work she drives all the way back home, prepares a meal for her family and makes sure her sons have their homework done, ready for another day. Maria waits until every child has been picked up and Plaza’s grounds are once again at peace before loading her own children into their truck to make their usual journey through the night back home. Maria says that one of her greatest satisfactions is witnessing the positive transformation many students go through when they become involved at Plaza. “Their self-esteem goes up. Kids come to the program so shy, and then you see them on stage. It’s amazing.” In fact, an impressive number of students from Plaza, and from CAP classes in particular have pursued their art practices at CalArts and other prestigious art institutions. by CARRIBEAN FRAGOZA CAP Summer Arts Program Coordinator and CalArts School of Critical Studies alumna 1 According to Maria, CAP’s presence at Plaza has become integral to their program development and the consistency of its programming. “There’s no distinction between Plaza kids and CAP kids. “The kids are still the same no matter who is funding the programs.” CAP has made it possible for Plaza to maintain a consistent set of classes through the ups and downs of program funding. One of the greatest challenges Maria faces is funding. “It's hard when you have a really great program and it gets cut because of funding.” Maria notes that many of these funding cuts were experienced after the attacks of September 11, 2001. When their annual funding was cut, Plaza was pressed to cut its program from 100 classes to 40. It was also unable to offer many of its free classes to the community and can only sponsor up to 75 families for reduced fee classes, which does not nearly meet the needs of local families. Maria notes that CAP has helped by encouraging Plaza to keep the CAP classes free of charge. Plaza de la Raza includes in its community, participants living well beyond the parameters of its immediate local neighborhoods. “Our community is everybody. People come as far as Riverside, drive from Fontana and San Fernando for our classes.” She adds that regardless of distance, Plaza is one of the most accessible arts organizations by offering free and low-cost classes to people of all ages, from five to adult. “Anyone who wants to take classes can come to Plaza.” CAP Photography students share fresh perspectives of their city in L.A. Central Public Library and Getty Research Institute exhibition The photographs of all the students in the exhibition are evidence that the young photographers are truly dedicated to pushing all rules and styles of photography to exciting new grounds. With an eye for architectural elements in their environment, each photograph reflects a unique perspective of the city. In one photograph entitled Watching Kickboxing by Juan Castañeda, dozens of traffic and business signs on the corner of a busy intersection ask you to take a moment’s pause in your mad rush through this city of endless movement where we constantly, almost unconsciously make sense of countless signs that contradict each other as they shape both our individual and collective directions. In black and white, it offers a moment of removed stillness and contemplation through a schizophrenic flurry of movement. Heather Galipo’s Untitled depicts haystacks in an outdoor shed, acknowledging a Los Angeles that with all its concrete and asphalt-covered surfaces and glass-paned sky rises, still conserves pockets of a rural life, traces of its former self. “He was showing us how he took each picture. You could just tell he had worked so hard and so long on each one,” says Lily. “It also made me want to start taking black and white architectural photographs again.” Although Andy now works mostly in color, he says that when he first started doing photography, he often took pictures of buildings. “I started taking these pictures because I found the patterns in materials and architecture interesting.” He also adds that he thinks that black and white is more appropriate for architectural photography because it “gives it balance.” 2 After weeks of study, practice and finally this field trip (followed by more work), CAP photography students have sharpened their photographic eye and learned to identify opportunities to capture unique perspectives. CAP photography student Gustavo Sanchez, was particularly amazed by the stunning and picturesque heights of L.A.’s architecture. “My favorite location was Angels’ Flight. You walk up all those stairs and when you get to the top, you can see everything.” 3 1 untitled by Sarah Koplowitz 2 watching kickboxing by Juan Castañeda { 3 untitled by Heather Galipo 4 at the end of the end by Marcee Helbig 5 shadow show by Lily Gottlieb background image sunset and vine by Daniel Silberschein } The CAP program is thoroughly committed to keeping all of its arts programs And while students have been learning many of the technical aspects of photography that are also followed by numerous rules, one of the most important lessons that these students have taken to heart is an ultimately simple idea. As Lily puts it, “There are rules of photography but you don’t have to follow them. Just let your eye see what it wants.” free, inclusive and And indeed, letting your “camera be your eye” is perhaps Julius Shulman’s most resounding piece of advice. In fact, Shulman advises photographers who are truly interested in taking great photographs to leave their cameras in their cases. His secret, he says, is actually not a mystery at all: “Learn to see first.” programs free, we In the course of the past few months, Gustavo Sanchez has found this to be true. “I’ve learned that you can’t really rush things. Put the camera down, you have to take your time.” And time, he has found, is also what it takes to develop a personal style. “I’m trying to find my own style and how I want to express myself –what feels right and what doesn’t. That’s where I’m at right now.” sources, and Wanting to take his time and committed to finding his own way of integrating the things he had learned on the trip with Shulman and his CAP instructors, Gustavo returned to downtown L.A. on another day to take more photographs. “I brought my mom and surrounded her with buildings. I wanted to integrate the architectural style with my own photography.” Some students, directed their eye to more personal spaces. Marcee Helbrig’s At the End of the End makes architectural photography more personal by turning the camera to the spaces and of her own home. Her photograph of white doorways framed by other doorways lead you through a hallway of an uncertain vortex of darkness. The students’ work not only presents their unique ways of perceiving and experiencing Los Angeles in both public and personal spaces, but also in effect transforms the viewer’s visions of life in this city. “They see things so differently. It makes me see some things differently too,” says Gloria Gerace, Director of Exhibitions at the Los Angeles Central Public Library. The Getty and the Los Angeles Central Public Library expressed enthusiasm about continuing to collaborate with CAP and CAP participants on future projects. Getty Research Institute Curator, Christopher Alexander offered words of encouragement to the students. “I hope this opportunity will compel you to continue your work into an exciting career. This is as real as you make it. Continue to do great things.” Under $100 CAP Photography student, Andy Gohlich was also impressed by Shulman’s intuitive precision and meticulous attention to detail. “He said you only need one picture. You don’t need to take a lot, just in case.” It is also not uncommon for students who go away to college to return to Plaza and become teachers themselves. “They tell me they graduated from college and all the things they’ve done, and that they want to teach,” says Maria, beaming. In fact, the majority of Plaza’s current instructors were either students or CAP student instructors. She estimates that approximately 40% of Plaza’s instructors were former Plaza students and about 20% of the instructors were CAP student instructors. Maria believes that over time, Plaza and CAP’s relationship has become stronger. “We have a great collaboration. CAP is bringing professional artists and our kids are learning at a college level.” For most students, it was their first time learning not only about Julius Shulman, but architectural photography in general. “I had never been interested in or even knew about architectural photography,” says Lily Gottlieb. “I had always thought of architectural photography as documentation. But Julius Shulman’s photographs had artistic flair.” Lily adds that Julius Shulman does more than document, “he also tried to incorporate culture, mostly through his framing.” Students also had the unique opportunity to meet Julius Shulman and talk to him in person during a day-long excursion on Saturday November 3, 2007 to many of Shulman’s favorite photo locations in downtown Los Angeles. From Angels’ Flight to the Walt Disney Concert Hall to Union Station, students watched and listened attentively as Shulman shot photographs and answered questions about his techniques. He advised students on how to set up shots, use camera lenses, and work with different types of light, along with many other bits of technical advice –the essential nuts-and-bolts of architectural photography. CAP’s theater program at Plaza, Maria notes, is an excellent example of how families come together to support their children in the arts. According to Maria, parents also volunteer to supervise during the extended rehearsal hours, prepare snacks, sometimes even buying snacks with their own money when rehearsals become more intense as they approach opening night. Seeing kids perform at other facilities, such as the REDCAT theater is another source of great pride for Maria, as well as for families who attend these events to watch their children perform. In addition to the satisfaction, some students are also able to make some money from their craft. “Kids learn a trade that can help them earn money and help their parents. Five mariachi groups have come out of Plaza,” says Maria. The New Generation’s Los Angeles 5 Like many CAP students, Shulman grew up in L.A. experiencing the city’s rapid growth and searching for ways to express the change he was witnessing. Shulman's images recorded the work of numerous visionary architects including Richard Neutra, Rudolph Schindler, John Lautner, and Pierre Koenig. Shulman’s photographs of Los Angeles architecture document the city’s rise into a dynamic, modern metropolis. Maria has earned the trust of many people in the 20 years she has worked at Plaza de la Raza, located in the heart of Lincoln Heights. Maria Jimenez-Torres is the Education Director at Plaza de la Raza. Since 1990, with an 18-year history of collaboration, Plaza de la Raza is CAP’s oldest partner organization and continues to be one of the most consistent and most successful. Maria has been a key figure in this partnership for all 18 of its years. Founded in 1970, Plaza de la Raza is a cultural center for arts and education located just north of downtown Los Angeles. Plaza offers classes in music, dance, visual arts and theater to all age groups from age five to adult and often draws entire families to their classes taught by accomplished musicians and renowned artists. For many members of the community, Plaza de la Raza is more than a cultural center –it is an extension of their family and home. During the past 18 years, CAP has collaborated closely with Plaza de la Raza to offer in-depth programs in theater, music, puppetry, dance and digital media for middle and high school students. For the past two summers, CAP has offered its free Summer Arts Program at Plaza de la Raza as well. On Sunday December 16, 2007 twenty CAP photography students were honored for their work reflecting the vibrant, regenerative spirit of Los Angeles. Curated by the Getty Research Institute and the Los Angeles Central Public Library, the students’ impressive black and white prints displayed new perspectives of Los Angeles as part of “Julius Shulman’s L.A.”, an exhibition of Julius Shulman’s architectural photography in the Central Library’s Annenberg Gallery. accessible to all youth who wish to participate. To keep all of our must raise money from foundations, government individuals. CAP would like to thank the following foundations, government agencies, and individuals for their generous donations to our program*: CAP DONORS AND SUPPORTERS CAP PARTNER PROFILE: 4 Jean and Phillip Beauregard David Cantrell Laurie Smith Covington Kerry L. English Gary & Susan Kodel Trista North, Timothy North & Susan Maunu Lela & Rita Mims Helen and Ronald Perry Wanda Perry Roland and Irma Tamayo Eileen Mann & Marc Winger $100 to $1,000 John Bache Jon Gottlieb Judith Johnson Alice McMahand Robert H. Thompson Valerie Wolf The CAP participants directly benefit from your donations to the CAP program: $50 can supply art materials for an entire class, $200 can fund the purchase of a musical $1,000 to $10,000 instrument and a $500 donation California Arts Council City of Santa Clarita Edison International Hilton Hotels Corporation John and Maria Laffin Trust Rhythm and Hues, Inc. Roth Family Foundation Martin Sosin-Stratton-Petit Foundation can provide a field trip to a museum $10,000 to $100,000 City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs The JL Foundation J. Paul Getty Trust Susan Disney Lord Walter E. D. Miller Jamie Tisch The Northern Trust Company Resnick Family Foundation, Inc. or a performance. CAP provides year-round arts training classes for youth from diverse neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles County freeof-charge. This means that our arts programs are inclusive and accessible to all young people who wish to participate. We welcome donations at all levels and thank you in advance for your generous support. All gifts are fully tax-deductible as determined by U.S. income tax law. Please help CAP continue to provide college-level visual and performing arts programs for the youth in Los Angeles. Over $100,000 For further information please Herb Alpert Foundation Capital Group Companies, Inc. Janet Dreisen James Irvine Foundation B. C. McCabe Foundation contact CAP’s Director Glenna Avila at glenna@calarts.edu. *This list includes gifts received during 2007 4 5 by EVELYN SERRANO Assistant Director of Programs, Newsletter Director and CalArts School of Art Alumna 15 years of CAP partnerships in the Santa Clarita Valley START with a BANG! In 1993, the CalArts Community Arts Partnership (CAP) received a challenge grant from the California Arts Council to establish CAP’s first arts programs for youth in the Santa Clarita Valley. As partnerships with the Santa Clarita community were just getting started and programs were getting off the ground, CAP and CalArts’ commitment to this project was tested. Literally. With a 6.7 magnitude, the Northridge earthquake hit the West San Fernando Valley, the city of Santa Monica, and Simi Valley. It also shook the Santa Clarita Valley to the core. As a result, CalArts suffered serious damage that threatened the future viability of all of its programs, including CAP. It was through the power of ingenuity and the combined energies of the administration, Board of Trustees, staff, faculty and student body that both the Institute and its CAP program were able to overcome the effects of the earthquake. For 15 years, CAP has collaborated with the local community to provide high quality, free-ofcharge arts programs for the young people of Santa Clarita. Glenna Avila, CAP’s Director, is passionate about sustaining the program’s partnerships in CalArts’ immediate community: “CAP links the neighboring communities of Valencia, Newhall, Saugus, Castaic, Canyon Country, ValVerde and Agua Dulce to CalArts, strengthening the perception of CalArts as not only a significant community resource, but as a partner and good neighbor, working closely together with the youth and the families of the Santa Clarita Valley. I believe that all large institutions should be responsive to the needs of their communities.” Arroyo Seco Junior High School Twenty-five English Language Learners from Ms. Juliet Fine’s class at Arroyo Seco Junior High School get to work for ten weeks every Fall semester with a group of talented graduate students from the CalArts School of Theater through a partnership with CAP that is now in its third year. The program covers a wide array of theater and language-based games, exercises and a myriad of writing activities. The workshops end with a performance of original work in CalArts’ Modular Theater, in front of the entire School of Theater student and faculty body. Ms. Fine appreciates the effect these workshops have in her students’ self-esteem and academic commitment: “There are observable physical and emotional changes that have taken place with these students. Their confidence has grown considerably and it is evident in their body stature. They are more comfortable in their own skin and with their language abilities. The program has given them strength. Before the program began, students lacked confidence in their oral language skills; they wouldn’t participate in classroom discussions, nor communicate with other students. And, they were not aware they could use their bodies and their voice as a tool of communication. Without time to think about inhibitions, they just act and move towards the set goal of the performance.” She also mentions that the workshops have “filtered into the camaraderie that has formed between the students in class. They are respectful of one another as classmates and as performance partners. They have a common understanding and have shared a common emotional experience. When they first come into my classroom, they are resentful of being placed into an English Language Development (ELD) class where they, unlike other students in our school, have two hours of English class. These students are second language learners of English and need two hours of English and remediation. There is a stigma with this type of class, which dissipates thanks to these workshops. They collaborate in performances once a week and really put themselves out there to be creative and free. They have learned to concentrate on one task and have learned about the idea of freedom of expression through art. Lastly, these students have developed lifelong learning goals within the arts and plan to eventually go to college. After ten weeks, they have discovered new self-worth through the art of theater. This language experience through the arts has been priceless.” Over the past 15 years, nearly 7,500 Santa Clarita Valley youth have participated in after-school CAP arts programs and over 30,000 have participated in CAP performances and workshops held in many Santa Clarita Valley public elementary, junior high, and high schools. City of Santa Clarita, Arts and Events Department Now in its sixth year, CAP’s Share the World Program brings CalArts world music and dance ensembles to provide performances and workshops for students in elementary, middle and high schools throughout the Santa Clarita Valley. The ensembles available range from jazz, Latin jazz, Balinese Gamelan to North and South Indian music, and African music and dance among many other offerings. The program begins in October and continues through May. This cultural program has been supported through a strong partnership with the City of Santa Clarita’s Arts and Events Department, which underwrites half of the funding needed to bring these performances and workshops to local public schools in the six Santa Clarita Valley school districts. All performances and workshops address the State mandated Visual and Performing Arts Standards as well as introducing the students to a variety of diverse cultural traditions. William Hart High School and the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission Last year, CAP was approached by the William Hart High School administration and by Joshua Parr, a Senior Consultant with the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission. Both institutions were looking to provide new programming at Hart High School that would address the rising racial tension in the student body as a consequence of rapid demographic shifts in the area. The CAP/William Hart High School Creative Writing Program was designed to address this need. Through it three teams of CalArts School of Critical Studies graduate students teach weekly creative writing workshops to youth enrolled in Hart High School’s English Language Development classes. Mady Schutzman, faculty member in the School of Critical Studies, leads the program. CAP asked Joshua Parr, one of CAP’s partners in the CAP Creative Writing Program at William Hart High School, to contribute a piece for this newsletter about the newly formed program. CAP is honored by the partnership with the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission and it is our pleasure to share Mr. Parr’s article with our readers. The Santa Clarita Valley Boys and Girls Club The Santa Clarita Valley Boys and Girls Club, with Director Jim Ventress at the helm, was CAP’s first partner in Santa Clarita. Programs in Modern Dance and Photography with the Club began in 1993. Once a week, at the Club’s gym, the echoes of basketball’s feverish dribbling and scoring were replaced by a different kind of choreography: led by talented CalArts School of Dance alumnus Tomas Tamayo, the Modern Dance workshop participants would rule the court, developing their own vocabulary through the use of movement and improvisatory dance techniques. Jim Ventress recalls one particular ninth grader who was struggling with self-esteem issues. “We tried to get her involved in sports, arts, game room activities and nothing was working. I would look out my window and see her coming into the Club after school with her head down and walking slowly. Then she met Tomas Tamayo who conducted the dance program. He was real upbeat. She decided to try dance!!! As each week passed by I would watch her come into the Club with a little more zip to her walk. By the end of the program she held her head high and her self esteem way up. Many of our staff went to her performance at CalArts.” In addition, the photography program led by CalArts School of Art faculty members John Bache and Andrew Freeman, is still going strong. “Over the years, participants in this class have won top National Awards through the Boys and Girls Club of America’s National Contest. One year we took 3 of the top 4 honors”, according to Jim Ventress. Other programs with the Santa Clarita Valley Boys and Girls Club included a Voice Program led CalArts School of Theater faculty Denise Woods, a Public Art Program taught by CalArts School of Art faculty Karen Atkinson, a Print/New Media program taught by CalArts School of Art faculty Robert Dansby, and Digital Art workshops led by Chandra Khan, a Santa Clarita resident and faculty of the CalArts School of Critical Studies. The programs, through different artistic means, allowed the participants to significantly connect with others through the use of art. Students in the CAP Voice Program experimented with their voices and body language through storytelling, role-playing and improvisation techniques. The Print/New Media program provided high school students with college-level analysis and training on current art practices and a space for dialog about artists as engaging members of society. The Public Art program created murals and public art pieces that energized the spaces they were in. The Digital Art workshops allowed students to connect and share their work with youth from Amman (Jordan), New York City, and Baghdad (Iraq) in one of the first global experiments using top-of-the-line digital net-working technology and the Internet in the teaching of art after the events of September 11. The Digital Art classes offered after-school by CAP at both the Boys and Girls Club and at CalArts were initially part of the larger Digital Arts Network, or DAN project. The DAN project was a 10-site digital arts initiative, with two of the ten sites located in the Santa Clarita Valley. The DAN project included the setting up and equipping of ten state-of-the-art digital media labs for youth in ten diverse neighborhoods. The Digital Media classes offered to high school students provide instruction and experimentation with computers, video, multimedia, the Internet, podcasting, and digital arts. The classes are held once-a-week, afterschool, at CalArts School of Art’s MacLab. Shelley Stepp, the program’s lead instructor and also a CalArts School of Art faculty member explains that “the class provides these students a safe environment to experiment and take risks by using words and images to create visual content and meaning. Discussions are based around bold themes such as cultural, political, religious, cultural and social issues. We encourage students to realize that personal voice is a way to develop strong and meaningful content in their work.” 6 The Santa Clarita Valley Youth Orchestra Paul Sherman, a CalArts alumnus of the School of Music and gifted oboist has been instrumental in the strengthening of the 15-year partnership between CAP and the Santa Clarita Valley Youth Orchestra, for which he is the Associate Conductor. “The SCVYO began its existence at CalArts under the directorship of the great Italian cellist, CalArts School of Music faculty and member of the famed Roth String Quartet, Cesare Pascarella. When I was a young musician I was a member of this orchestra myself. In the 1990’s the orchestra moved to College of the Canyons where it has continued to be closely tied to the music school up the hill.” Robert Lawson, the orchestra’s long time conductor, is also a CalArts School of Music alumnus. They have always drawn teaching talent from the ranks of CalArts music students. Paul Sherman, who will become the orchestra’s new conductor and director of the organization as Maestro Lawson focuses his energies on the new Santa Clarita Symphony, greatly appreciates the advantages of the orchestra’s collaboration with CAP: “In this project we are jointly hiring some of the best young players and teachers from the music school student body in the sections of woodwinds and strings. They attend Saturday rehearsals with the intermediate orchestra to lead very valuable weekly master classes. They also attend Monday evening Philharmonic advanced orchestra rehearsals to lead classes and actually sit and play in the sections. “No other orchestra in Los Angeles has such an intense and rewarding teaching program and the results are telling. This year our orchestras are sounding better than ever thanks to the hard work and dedication of these fine musicians and teachers. By getting weekly attention specific to their instrument and then sitting in rehearsal next to an accomplished musician, not far removed from their age group, the students are able to hear how they should really sound and get those valuable insights only another performer on their instrument can offer,” says Paul Sherman. For the past 15 years, CAP has been offering free Saturday music classes for Santa Clarita Valley students on the CalArts campus and producing two music recitals annually. The CAP Saturday Music Program, coordinated by CalArts School of Music alumnus Drew Jorgensen, offers 20 weeks of workshops for elementary, middle and high school students from the Santa Clarita Valley Youth Orchestra, and the Newhall, William S. Hart, Castaic and Saugus School Districts. Classes include world percussion, strings, jazz and vocal ensembles, music theory, computer music, composition among many others. The classes meet at the CalArts School of Music’s practice rooms and they are taught by current School of Music BFA and MFA students. Susan Allen, CalArts School of Music Associate Dean, has been this program’s faculty advisor since its inception. “This music program echoes the rich educational offerings of the School of Music at CalArts, with improvisation, world music, innovative ensembles, as well as traditional performance and theoretical training. In reciprocal benefit, local youth receive free instruction while our students gain valuable experience in teaching their art.” The CAP/William Hart High School Creative Writing Program Their Word is the Bridge In May, 2006, students began fighting in the cafeteria of Hart High School, in Newhall, a working class, mostly Latino township in Santa Clarita, California. What sparked it is not so relevant- jealousy, disrespect, rivalry. What is significant is what happened afterward. The fight burned through the campus, and at its end, riot-gear clad police closed the campus, helicopters swirled overhead, teachers were locked inside their classrooms with students, and administrators were perplexed. Local newspapers added to the chaos, reporting “black and Hispanic students fighting against white students,” and the trail of comments left in the online forums showed hardening opinions: “Just goes to show why whites need to stick together!” and “La Raza got to fight those damn hueros! Viva La Raza!” Considered the “flagship” school of the local district, Hart High School now appeared to the world as a campus torn by racial strife, begging broader questions about the area’s social attitudes and politics. What caused this racialized “riot”? Demographic shifts over the last decade had radically changed the student body. What had once been a primarily white school has become 40% students of color, with the majority of these students being of Latino heritage. The teachers however, were over 90% white, as were administration and campus supervisors. Also, over 90% of the ASB, or Student Body government was white. Academically, very few students of color were in the highest achieving, advanced placement classes, meaning that achievement gaps were racialized as well. by JOSHUA PARR Senior Consultant with the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission Today, the student leadership body remains the samewhile excellent kids, they do not reflect the diversity of the student body. Nor do the activities that they plan. And AP classes remain filled with the same group of high achieving students as before. The segregated parent groups also have not yet come together, though there are plans in the works to do so. But change does not happen overnight. The slow accumulation of the academic, leadership and cultural knowledge in all aspects of the campus ferments into a less segregated campus. Students in Change of Hart develop into recognized leaders on campus, gaining the skills to organize Latino heritage month events, like the schools first Dia De Los Muertos, or the First African American heritage month. Administrators learn to integrate these students and their knowledge into the campus, and slowly, incrementally, a cultural change stirs. To do so, what is often though of as “the bottom” must be lifted to close the gap with “the top.” In classrooms, new curriculums integrate students from various aspects of the campus community. One such program is the fruit of collaboration between the CalArts Community Arts Partnership (CAP), the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations, and Lockheed-Martin. Because the least integrated, and often lowest achieving students in the school are the immigrant populations, it was deemed a priority to provide them the opportunity to increase literacy, gain a voice through writing, and educate the general student population through publishing their stories, poetry, and art work. A cadre of CalArts School of Critical Studies MFA Writing Program students instructors from the CAP program enter Hart High’s English Language Learner classrooms weekly, with writing assignments. Relationships are built, trust grows, and confidence levels increase as students hear each other’s stories, learn about each other’s families. Inherent story telling abilities are tapped into, the barriers of race, class, culture, language and nationality all become stories in themselves. With many from nations throughout Latin America, the stories of these students can include immigration tales- border crossings, life without “documentation,” and perspectives of America rarely heard, ironically, by mainstream American society. Over the course of the year, stories will be written, edited, and anthologized into a publication. Once completed, the publication will open with a reading by the students and teachers themselves, on May 7, 2008, at the school’s cafeteria, with students reading to parents, students and teachers. Empowered, educated, and now, educating others, it is hoped that this publication will be an annual collaboration to continue to integrate the Hart campus into a safe, knowledgeable, equitable institution providing outstanding educational opportunities for all of its student body. Put together, the campus experienced conditions of segregation, where the student body was dividing along racial lines both socially and academically, with little being done to intervene. It is little wonder then that the fault lines which were tacitly recognized by segregated classes and a segregated cafeteria exploded in pent up rioting. Two graduating classes later, very few students remember the “riot” as papers called it. A “Peace Pole” erected to consecrate a future of “peace and unity” was placed in the center of the campus. A student group, called Change of Hart, composed of primarily students of color, organizes monthly “diversity” events. A parent group, called “Padres Unidos”- United Parents, meets monthly as well, to bring the voices of Latino parents into the mainstream. However, the imbedded issues of academic and student segregation remain. Located in Newhall, a majority Latino community, the demographic swing within the school will certainly not slow down- if anything, it will accelerate toward a Latino majority. 7 by CARRIBEAN FRAGOZA CAP Summer Arts Program Coordinator and CalArts School of Critical Studies alumna A conversation with CalArts Provost Nancy Uscher on communities, colleges and the arts by CARRIBEAN FRAGOZA CAP Summer Arts Program Coordinator and CalArts School of Critical Studies alumna Inside Reaching Out Nancy Uscher has been Provost and a faculty member in the School of Music at the California Institute of the Arts since 2004. She had previously been Professor of Music and Associate Provost for Academic Affairs at The University of New Mexico. In addition, she was the Director of the UNM Center for the Arts in Society, a unit of the Institute of Public Law that explores arts-related public policy issues. In viewing art as an agent for social change, she created an Arts-in-Prisons concert series and the National Endowment for the Humanities-funded project "A New Mexico Conversation: Music as a Symbol of American Pluralism and Identity." Ms. Uscher received a Ph.D. from New York University. She was awarded a Masters of Music degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and received a Bachelor’s Degree in Music from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester as well as an A.R.C.M. from the Royal College of Music in London. During 1998-1999 Uscher was a fellow of the American Council on Education at Brown University. She attended the Institute of Educational Management at Harvard University in 2007. During her performance career as a violist, Ms. Uscher has appeared in recitals on six continents and recorded for a number of the major radio networks of Europe including recitals for the BBC. For five seasons she led the viola section of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. She has participated at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, Kennedy Center Mozart Festival, Grand Teton Music Festival, Round Top Festival in Texas, Venice Biennale, Montepulciano Festival, Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds in Italy, and the Moab Music Festival in Utah. In addition, she has performed and presented master classes at the Brazilian international festivals Oficina de Musica XIV in Curitiba and Campos do Jordao's Festival de Inverno. She is the author of two books, The Schirmer Guide to Schools of Music and Conservatories Throughout the World and Your Own Way in Music: A Career and Resource Guide. CARRIBEAN FRAGOZA: How important is CAP to the education of CalArts students? NANCY USCHER: CAP is very important to the entire community of CalArts. As we move forward, it would be in everyone’s best interest to maximize the potential of CAP as an integrated part of the Institute, to complement the important work it has done for so many years with thousands of young people throughout Los Angeles. One emerging area is CAP’s relationships with the Schools of CalArts. A specific example is with the School of Theater, where there has been an important collaboration between CAP, the School of Theater faculty and Arroyo Seco Junior High School students. This type of project is a fine model of the melding of philosophies between CAP and another academic part of the Institute. CalArts students learn the importance of community and sharing their talents. There are many other ways we would hope to expand the work of CAP in the future. CF: How does CAP impact faculty? NU: CAP looms large in the lives of many CalArts faculty, in addition to their college- level creative work and teaching. I think that the experience of teaching in CAP is meaningful to faculty. It broadens the scope of how they can share their talent. In some ways, it inspires them to be better teachers for CalArts students. GLENNA AVILA: It goes both ways. Working in the CAP program connects us more to community in a way that working here in this more isolated environment at CalArts doesn’t. NU: It creates an incredible balance. CF: You’re also a musician. So for you as an artist, how important is connecting to community in terms of what you have learned? NU: I believe that artists in the world need to understand that we have a special opportunity and obligation to use our art to bring people together, to connect people, in ways that non-artists can’t, across socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds – connecting to beauty and making that available to everyone. CF: What projects have you worked on that you felt really connected artists to community? NU: I enjoyed the arts projects in prisons which I created/produced in the 1990s/early 2000s in New Mexico. Here is an article that describes one of them, in the Women’s Correctional Facility in Grants, NM. “As part of an outreach program for women in correctional facilities, Nancy Uscher organized concerts with undergraduate students from the University of New Mexico. The project included four concerts for the women, one of which was a “musical Valentine’s Day gift” to the women in the facility. The outreach program was part of an effort to connect artists with the community.” GA: Were you teaching in the prison? NU: I didn’t have a formal teaching assignment, but I did perform in concerts and At any given time of the day, you are likely to find students walking up and down CalArts’ stern white hallways from class to class, or running up and down the stair-wells, busy with projects. But you probably wouldn’t know from plain sight where these students come from or what paths they have had to walk to arrive here. GA: I had the opportunity to teach art in a men’s prison. I found the inmates to be an extremely interested group of students. They asked intelligent questions, they were respectful, they were excited to learn about something new. I didn’t know what to expect. That was a while ago. It was at the Terminal Island Prison near San Pedro. There used to be a program called Arts in Corrections here in California, which sent artists to teach in the prisons. NU: Well, that was my inspiration in New Mexico. I was doing a lot of research about programs in the US and California was actually much further along than other states in creating these programs. GA: UCLA had a program called Arts Reach, which also sent artists to teach in prisons. And the whole state had an artists-in-residence program. NU: That’s wonderful. Is it still around? GA: No, I believe funding was cut at the state level. NU: It was a great model. CF: Your daughter also participated in the CAP Photography Program. What was that experience like as a parent and for her as a CAP student? NU: My daughter Alessandra and I were both very pleased that the opportunity was there for her. It helped her to learn to focus and to work in a new medium with a new vocabulary. There was a set of skills that she developed during that time that really complemented the work she was doing as a musician. This was a very fortunate experience. I was very proud of her. As a parent, I can understand the value of CAP with a different perspective. CF: How does CAP fit into the larger picture of an arts institution working closely with communities? NU: CAP presents a model of a highly sophisticated program, with a carefully crafted approach to bringing community into the lives of students, and one of the most important aspects is the way it honors community. That is an important value. I have learned from Glenna and others about the respect among students, instructors and CAP partners to ensure that the total collaboration is based on a community partner’s specific needs. CAP has worked with thousands of students at the different sites. The scope, volume and quality of work has been tremendous. CF: How did your interest in collaborating with communities through the arts begin? Did you have a moment when you realized that it was something you wanted to pursue? NU: I’ve always been interested. I became a musician as a result of an inspiring, great teacher – Ellen Amsterdam (now Ellen Amsterdam-Walker) – in a public school music program in New York. As a college student at the Eastman School of Music, I had the chance to teach music on Saturdays in the Rochester Public Schools and I found it very rewarding. That set a tone for the future of my career. Sharing one’s art with different communities helps to balance the solitary life of an artist. This year, the trajectories of 23 CalArts students can be traced back to CAP classrooms in all corners of Los Angeles. These students began their artistic journeys as high school student participants in dance, theater, music, photography and animation at several of CAP’s partner sites. However, the routes our CAP participants take from their respective communities to CalArts are as varied and diverse as our program, taking many lengths and configurations. 1 On The Road CAP Participants follow their artistic paths from their communities to CalArts and beyond RAFAEL HERNANDEZ bfa 1, calarts school of art, photography program Only months ago, Rafael Hernandez walked the grounds of his high school campus at Cleveland High School and was a participant in CAP’s Santa Clarita Valley Photography Program. Today he is a busy student at CalArts, working on numerous projects, excited to work with CalArts faculty and peers. Rafael knew he wanted to do photography in the fifth grade when his older brother began taking classes in the CAP/LACPS program at CalArts with students from Cleveland High School. Although his brother taught him things he was learning himself, Rafael had to wait a few years until he started high school and began taking classes on his own. Rafael said that his photography class not only gave him more time to work on his photography, but also kept him motivated to do well in his classes so that he could graduate from high school and apply to CalArts. “I had to make sure I was on track,” says Rafael. He also adds that this motivation became even more vital when his family moved to Palmdale and he had to commute to Cleveland High School. Rafael says that he might have never known CalArts existed if he hadn’t participated in CAP. Now as students at CalArts and informed by their experiences, these students are setting their sights back to their L.A. communities, aspiring to give back to youth, the same inspiration and support they were given as CAP students. Here are the stories of four of these motivated former CAP youth participants who are currently enrolled at CalArts. ALEJANDRO SANCHEZ mfa 2, calarts school of art, photography program If you had met MFA 2 Photography student Alex Sanchez as a freshman in high school and asked him what he loved most about art, he would have said “nothing.” In fact, Alex disliked art altogether and hated taking art classes at his high school, Don Bosco in the city of Rosemead. Fortunately his disdain for art was transformed into wonder and eventually love and dedication when he began taking CAP photography classes at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, a former CAP partner organization. Alex first began participating in the photography classes because two of his older brothers, Jose and Andy Sanchez, were both taking photography classes at the Armory Center of the Arts. Alex explains that before taking CAP classes at the Armory, he was not practicing any art because there weren’t many art programs near his home in El Monte and because he disliked the rigid art classes that were taught at his private, all-boy, Catholic school. “I hated art because it was taught in a very formal style,” says Alex. Contrary to his experience in school, one of the things Alex appreciated most about CAP was the instructors’ open teaching approach that allowed him to experiment and eventually love photography. “Teachers taught a lot, but they also let you be free to do what you wanted to do.” Another thing that Alex enjoyed was being around other students who also liked photography and took it seriously. Alex says his mother would pick him up after school from his high school and drive him and his friend to the Armory and take them back home nearly every day. Not only did his CAP classes at the Armory awaken his passion for photography and art, but he also believes that they helped prepare him for CalArts. “Being in CAP, I knew what to expect at CalArts.” He adds that his instructors had taught him at a high artistic level so that when he began taking classes at CalArts as a BFA photography student, he realized that his CAP classes were taught in a similar style and artistic level. Alex decided to attend CalArts immediately after high school where he received his BFA and is now in his sixth year at Cal Arts, on the cusp of completing his MFA in Photography. In retrospect, Alex believes that one of the most important things students need is support. He believes that aside from technical guidance from teachers, students also need to be exposed to different art approaches. “Kids might have motivation, but without exposure, that drive might die.” CAP students who aspire to apply to CalArts have a good sense of the rigor of classes and the general spirit of the school. Rafael says that CAP has also helped him make him feel comfortable at CalArts. Rafael says that because his photography instructors helped him discover his talents as an artist, he would “like to do the same for someone else.” However, often the challenges don’t end upon entering CalArts. One of Alex’s challenges at CalArts was feeling like an outsider and not relating to his peers. “We were not coming from the same place. Our experiences are different.” Although this experience is a difficult one, it is also a common one amongst many CAP students and other students who come from similar communities where socio-economic circumstances make arts and higher education in general, significantly less accessible than in more affluent communities. Which is why CAP’s role in these communities and in the CalArts community becomes so vital. According to Alex, “CAP helps broaden the [CalArts] community and brings in kids that wouldn’t necessarily come to art schools. It exposes a lot of young people to art that wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to by most of their school teachers.” Fortunately for many students who may feel alienated or out of place at CalArts, CAP is like a home away from home. “Glenna knew my name! When someone knows your name, it makes you feel at home, especially during the first years at CalArts.” brought faculty colleagues and students into prisons to perform and talk to inmates. At one point I was awarded National Endowment for the Humanities funding to bring musicians and poets into the Santa Fe Penitentiary for a special visiting day for inmates with their families called “Outta Joint at the Joint.” It was very festive. My previous work with communities has helped me to be outward-looking and to understand the deep commitment of CAP. 4 8 For some students, it seems that it was a matter of taking a mere step or small hop to cross over to CalArts directly from high school. For others, it is truly a journey that is neither direct nor simple, leading them through a number of schools and a series of jobs before arriving at CalArts. In addition, Rafael believes that parent support becomes even more important to young artists as they deal with larger social pressures and stigmas against art as a viable vocation. “Everybody was telling me CalArts was too expensive, but my parents told me they would help however they could.” The concept of this kind of balance came up earlier in this conversation. Certainly connecting and sharing with others became extremely important as I conceptualized my art practice. The giving back of their artistic gifts in powerful ways is what the CAP program provides our faculty and students at CalArts. 2 Alex says that he came to CalArts because of the “freeness of it” and because it is “not as commercial as other art schools and more conceptual. I never wanted to mix art with money.” Sanchez adds that he has always looked to teaching as a viable and respectable employment to support his art. Currently, Alex is a student instructor in CAP’s after-school photography program and also teaches at the Armory Center for the Arts. “ I plan on teaching and continuing to do my art work in general, wherever it takes me.” And most importantly, it is a vocation he cares deeply about. a 3 b LETICIA CALLELA bfa 3, calarts school of music For Leticia Callela, the link between theater and music is “la letra”, the words of a song. When she discovered this as a high school freshman taking theater classes in CAP’s theater program at Plaza de la Raza, she began to sing the words to the mariachi songs she performed for audiences with new conviction and meaning. Before then, Leticia was already a dedicated violinist in a mariachi band and had just started, reluctantly, to sing. However, Leticia recalls that until she started participating at CAP theater class at Plaza, it was hard for her to really put the bravado that goes into ranchera, mariachi songs into her performances. c d DAVID JOVEL bfa 2, calarts school of art, photography program “I want to be that teacher that helped me find my talent. I want to be that teacher that provides students with a warm, safe space. I just want to give back.” The teacher David Jovel, a BFA 2 Photography student at CalArts, is referring to is his photography teacher Paula Prato. Ms. Prato is a CalArts School of Art alumna who has taught photography in the CAP program, and photography and digital media at Cleveland High School. David acknowledges the profound influence she had on him as a senior at Cleveland High School. “Being in theater made me pay attention to ‘la letra’ by putting context to the songs.” She also says that if she hadn’t “gotten that extra push” in theater, she might not have had the confidence and ganas (will or desire) to perform her music. David recalls that although he knew about CAP’s photography class with Cleveland High School, it took him a few years to decide to begin participating. By then, he was failing many of his classes and did not feel very motivated in school. However, according to David, having an extra day for photography encouraged him to do better in his classes. “It really helped me to stay on track.” Leticia has had to muster up a good deal of ‘ ganas’ to get from Plaza to CalArts. “It took me six years to get to CalArts,” shares Leticia, recalling the challenging and often long road that many students walk between high school and CalArts, in pursuit of their art. By the time David had graduated from high school, he was convinced that he wanted to continue photography at CalArts but did not feel ready to apply immediately after high school. Instead David opted to take the community college route. Leticia had already been very involved in music programs in middle and high school for several years, when she found out about CAP through her younger brother, Jose. He had already begun participating in CAP’s theater program at Plaza de la Raza when Leticia decided to take part in the theater program as well and performed in “Tropical America.” During this time, Leticia continued to take music classes and perform in mariachi bands. According to David, it was very important for him to continue going to school because he also knew how important it was to his family –-he would be the first in his family to go to college. David took two years of community college classes and worked at a Starbucks before applying to CalArts. It was when he took a photography class that he realized he had already learned a lot of what was being taught in his college-level class in his CAP class. “I felt like I was going nowhere and decided to finally apply.” Leticia says that one of the best things about being a CAP participant is the recognition students get for their work. She recalls how proud she and her peers felt when they received certificates from CAP. But most importantly, it is the support that students receive from the community that can be most rewarding. “Opening night and seeing hundreds of people in the audience makes you realize how many people are behind you, supporting you. Even the certificates and t-shirts you receive at the end of the program make a huge difference.” Leticia knew she wanted to continue studying music and enrolled at California State University in Long Beach’s music program when she graduated high school. Unfortunately, she quickly realized that the program and the school fell short of her expectations and decided not to return after her first year. Instead, Leticia started taking classes at a East Los Angeles College and Los Angeles Community College. After several years, one of her professors noted she was unhappy and suggested that she return to her music. It was then that Letty decided to apply to CalArts music program. This is Leticia’s second year in CalArts’ music program and she is now rigorously perfecting her skills on the violin. And when she’s not in class or in rehearsal, Leticia is teaching the CAP violin classes at Plaza de la Raza. Leticia believes that one of the biggest challenges for many students is learning to embrace art, not for its commercial value, but on its own terms. “There is a real fear of embracing art,” she says. Especially she adds, when many are constantly bombarded by multimedia and the Internet as forms of entertainment. “It keeps people from co-existing, that’s why it could be really important to embrace performance.” Another huge obstacle that keeps students from exploring themselves through art is funding and access to art programs. “If CAP didn’t exist, there wouldn’t be many options for kids. The government has been cutting down funding for art programs and taking away things kids can do. What are they going to do if they can’t do art? CAP needs to exist so kids can see out of the ordinary.” There are two things that have remained clear in Leticia’s mind: her love of music and teaching. Leticia has always known the importance of teaching and inspiring youth and plans on sharing her knowledge, experience and love of art with her students in the future. David remembers that although his family didn’t initially understand why he wanted to go to art school, they supported him nonetheless. With time, he adds, they’ve come to understand more about what photography is. David says that his mother continues to be a source of support, constantly encouraging him, even when he feels insecure. “Now she’s the one telling me to keep going, that there are so many opportunities as a photographer.” Now as a second year student at CalArts, and completely involved in his projects, David feels that he is ready to challenge himself further and is planning on studying abroad and applying to an MFA program in the future. David says that to his surprise, his experience so far at CalArts as been remarkably easy. “Except I’m paying a lot of money,” he adds. David also feels that his experience has been made easier just knowing that CAP is nearby. “The CAP office is like a little piece of home.” David says that he was amazed when he visited the office and learned about the dozens of programs CAP makes possible. “I used to think it was just with Cleveland High School.” But for David’s family, CAP doesn’t end with David. He is now encouraging his younger sister Ericka to participate in CAP when she begins Cleveland High School. “Doing CAP and coming [to CalArts] infected the family.” According to David, CAP is infectious simply because “It really is a good program.” Modestly, David adds, “ I feel bad taking so much. There are so many other people that need it more than I do. I feel like I have to do something.” That something, David has decided, is to teach and create a “warm, safe space” for a new generation of artists. 1 work 1 2 work 2 by Alejandro Sanchez b { 3 untitled by David Jovel d } 4 reflections by Rafael Hernandez a Leticia Callela c 9 CAP ’s TEACHING ARTISTS FORUM Oil Prices Creep Slightly Higher! Mel Brooks Back on Broadway With 'Frankenstein'! Bush Signs the Border Security Act! And so are the headlines, their capital letters (and capital angst) screaming from newspapers, blogs, radio casts and TV. NEWS BRIEFS US Abortion Debate Intensifies! Rise Expected in Homeless US War Veterans! Abbas Hopes for Peace Before Bush Term Ends! 1 Iraq Death Toll reaches Should We Welcome Undocumented Immigrants? 2 CAP Channel now on YouTube! Now everyone will be able to view videos by CAP students on CAP’s new YouTube channel. The channel will serve as a virtual “video gallery” where students and the rest of the world can see the work made by participants at all of CAP’s sites. Check out CAP’s channel at http://www.youtube.com/ CalArtsCAP 130 000! edited by EVELYN Airborne Toxic Event releases first album and is spotlighted in Los Angeles Times SERRANO Assistant Director of Programs, Newsletter Director and CalArts School of Art Alumna Noah Harmon, CAP instructor and CalArts School of Music alumnus, released his first record with his band Airborne Toxic Event on December 15 and will be aired on local radio stations throughout Los Angeles. Recently, Airborne Toxic Event was named one of three “bands to watch” in L.A. by the Los Angeles Times. Noah teaches music classes in CAP music programs at Art-in-the-Park and Plaza de la Raza. Check them out at http://www.myspace.com/ theairbornetoxicevent What is our place as artists –and specifically as teaching artists- in the context of these headlines? Is it our responsibility as “cultural superheroes” to move, solve, discuss, question, react, investigate, or educate? Should we re-write our mission in these paradoxical times of abandoned utopias, record prices for the art market and the omnipresent monochrome monolog of corporations and mainstream media? With these and other questions I approached this group of inspired artists, all fundamentally aware of the political and social context in which they operate as teachers and artists. Here are KAREN ATKINSON, NANCY BUCHANAN, and VIRGINIA GRISE’s thoughts on the questions posed. Jon Gomez exhibits at Green Sea Gallery CAP instructor, former CAP youth participant, and CalArts School of Film/Video alumnus Jon Gomez celebrated the opening of his solo show at Green Sea Gallery in Montecito, near Santa Barbara, on Friday December 14, 2007. Most of the work consisted of powerful drawings in various media. The show is up through January 18, 2008. Jon is a graduate of the Character Animation program at CalArts. 3 KAREN ATKINSON In lieu of being depressed as hell, I trudge on as a faculty member, mentor and workshop leader to help artists find their particular voice. I am not sure that the headlines will ever be more cheerful, because we are living with a really stupid government, and people don’t work with each other any more. There is a sense of entitlement in the new generation, fighting for what is theirs, or what they can get. Actually I am not sure that it is much different than previous generations, but that is what the statistics are telling us. So, as a post 50 year-old that is employed as an educator, what is my role? Ah, I put my curmudgeon attitude aside, keep my wacky laugh at my side, and try to find out what artists want. I am more interested in what my students want rather than trying to educate them on what they should think. That does not mean that I don’t give my opinions, but I am careful to make sure they know where my ideas come from, and to take them with a shaker of salt. The whole shaker, not just a grain or two. I have always operated with a sense of optimism. I know that artists and art are not going to change the world with one swoop, but I have seen a lot of audiences and viewers change a lot from an experience of an artwork. I know that artists can have a voice if they don’t let that voice be squashed by the art world at large. I also remind artists that there are many art worlds, and they get to make a choice of just which ones they want to operate in. It seems important to share the consequences of their choices, based on experience and knowledge of many years. I love the diversity of artists these days. Not everyone is making the same work at the same time, and artists are making choices of how to disseminate that work. They are going in smarter at times. I find just as many artists making work for the market as ever however, but this is the nature of capital. A lot of artists are still after fame and fortune, but I am finding many more artists who have different agendas and that is refreshing. In the early 90’s, there were very few artist-run spaces in Los Angeles. I started Side Street Projects because there were a lot of artists who were not being shown, and who needed a place to engage with each other and try new ideas . Now, there are at least 20 more organizations, not necessarily nonprofits, which are taking their ideas and making them into reality. They are trying new strategies which support a growing number of artists, and working with others to create something much more dynamic. This means that those artists who are not just market driven are taking things into their own hands and really making things that matter. The diversity is what is important here, and I think CAP has helped create those opportunities. I like that artists are starting their own businesses based on their experiences and perspective. Using their creativity in all aspects of their lives, and using what they learn from the creative process to take on new challenges both within and outside the art making process. I call a lot of things art. Starting a nonprofit organization was the largest installation of my life. Starting a business is just as consuming, and you make about as much money as a nonprofit. Even though many of my peers question these activities as art, I don’t separate my creative endeavors (teaching, curating, writing, programming software for artists) into separate lives. I would go nuts. (Well, maybe that is a done deal.) I think the more exhibition and art spaces run by artists the better. 10 I think it is smart for corporations to realize that artists have something to offer. Now that the MFA has been touted as the new MBA, it is interesting to see how creativity is going to become the new revolution, i.e. the post industrial revolution. There is currently a lot of writing being done about these ideas. I think it is imperative that the arts have been put back into the school system (with a mandate in California by 2009). We lost so much when the arts and things like woodshop disappeared from our education. Companies began hiring 70% of their employees from overseas because while we were teaching our students how to use technology, we were not teaching them how to be creative with those tools. Artists are still the tool users. The more artists begin to participate in all aspects of a community, such as running for office, running businesses, creating workshops, making work, engaging in politics and education, the better off a community will be. Artists have been silent for a long time. They have operated in a small context called the art world. They have shown work in spaces where a small percentage of like-minded people visit. Work outside these spaces is often dismissed, even by smart, educated folks who are decision makers in the arts. Is it because of fear? I am not sure that I am a hero to anyone, and I am not sure that this is my job. But I am good at working with artists on their own terms, and this I believe is important. Even if I don’t agree with their perspective, it is important for me to challenge them to find their own voices. This is what I feel I can do in the context of these headlines. NANCY BUCHANAN Kurt Vonnegut once wrote an essay in defense of the National Endowment for the Arts' fellowship program, characterizing the artist as "the canary in the coal mine," who warns of toxic social conditions. While we see plenty of art these days, in the US, it is more likely to play into the celebrity game than to criticize our society. One of the most difficult concepts to accept seems to be the reality that we are all very small—not super heroes at all, but members of the larger community. And it is within communities that we can best contribute to change. Those movements of past decades, such as the Civil Rights movement and the Black Panther Party, elevated and honored the group; unfortunately, powerful leaders within those groups were murdered and the energy dissipated. But the lesson remains of "each one, teach one," passing along knowledge. Sometimes I wonder if it is the profound isolation of the narcissistic individual that fuels such incredible selfishness—when recognizing that one can play a part in change could bring wholeness. I wish the efforts of art groups to keep their members anonymous could have been more successful; perhaps there will be more attempts to work collectively in the future. The internet offers us new opportunities for forming community, collaborating, and doing much more creative things than tooting our own little horns. Let's link up! I've been encouraged by the wit and energy displayed by many CalArts students, and the altruism expressed by the high school students I've met through CAP. In many of the new alternative spaces created by the current generation of artists, there's a marvelous spirit of generosity and hope. VIRGINIA GRISE I believe it is our role as citizens, as critical thinking human beings and as artists to "move, solve, discuss, question, react, investigate, and educate" the world around us. I have always believed this, despite who is in office, though I feel a greater sense of urgency in these times, when voices are being silenced without protest, when civil liberties are being handed over, and a climate of fear and terror "of the other" are being perpetuated and sanctioned through institutional doctrine and law. One of the cultural centers I work at in East LA received threatening phone calls days before they threw a huge Family Day event. "We are going to call the INS on you." Just months before, a school down the street received bomb threats and violent phone calls. "That school is going to smell like burnt tortillas and beans. I hope you all burn." The hate in these threatening phone calls is rooted in a legacy of violence and cultural genocide in the United States. The threat - a community that is truly self-determined and autonomous, a community that is culturally grounded and strong. As a Chicana, my work is rooted in the work of liberation and my writing was born out of necessity. I am writing and creating despite the headlines. I am writing and creating against the headlines. I am writing and creating for the people whose stories never make the headlines. I believe in the revolutionary potential of an art that is created from communities that have been traditionally silenced, in an art that is transformative, that teaches us something about who we are and the world around us. I believe in an art that is deeply rooted in experience/ lived reality. My art is my spiritual practice. My art is my political practice. It is my life practice. I do not believe that art is separate from life so I work daily at being open, vulnerable and honest, listening, working to actively support my community the best I can. This type of art requires one to be fully present, to walk into the room with one’s fullest self, and it demands that we enact our fullest potential. As a teaching artist, in the classroom, I am armed with an understanding that our word has power, that there is an inherent power in the claiming/reclaiming/telling of our stories/histories that have been actively erased. When I teach, I am teaching against forgetting. Words and memories, poetry and history do not stop the bombs or the bomb threats but in the act of creation, we are challenging ourselves to imagine another world and in that imagining, we open doors to possibilities and new hopes and dreams. I believe in a radical hope for a better tomorrow, that we actively create today. KAREN ATKINSON is a media, installation and public artist, independent curator, collaborator, and has published and guest edited a number of publications. She has exhibited and curated internationally including South Africa, Australia, Europe, Mexico, Canada, and throughout the USA, and exhibited in the Fifth Havana Biennial in Cuba. She was a co-founding director of Side Street Projects in 1991, a non-profit artistrun organization in Los Angeles, which is still up and thriving today. She has been a faculty member at CalArts since 1988 and taught in the CAP program from 1991-1996. She is the board president of NAAO, the National Association of Artists' Organizations. She has served on the board of directors of LACPS, Side Street Projects, Installation and serves on many advisory boards of arts organizations. Atkinson currently teaches classes and workshops titled "Getting Your Sh*t Together" and has created software for visual artists of the same title. Her company GYST Ink, is an artist run company for artists. www.gyst-ink.com NANCY BUCHANAN received an MFA from UC Irvine, where her studies with Robert Irwin inspired her to think of artwork in its social context. She has participated in many artist groups, including F Space Gallery, Double XX, a feminist collective, and the Artists Formerly Known as Women. Her work is in various media, including video and installation, and she has curated exhibitions when she felt important ideas were not being seen. She is a member of the faculty of the CalArts School of Film/Video and leads the CAP/Bell High School Video Program. VIRGINIA GRISE is a Chicana cultural worker, installation artist, writer and teacher who has facilitated organizing efforts amongst women, immigrants, incarcerated, working class, Chicano, and queer youth. She is an MFA student in the Writing for Performance program at the California Institute of Arts, under the mentorship of Carl Hancock Rux. Virginia currently teaches theatre and writing classes to high school and junior high school students in the Eastside of Los Angeles through the CalArts Community Arts Partnership (CAP). CAP Students win Barbara Schreter Scholarship from Inner-City Arts Wednesday Torres and Alan Ruiz were awarded the Barbara Schreter Award at Inner-City Arts’ Gala event on November 3, 2007. Wednesday and Alan are both participants in the CAP Animation Program on Saturdays at ICA. Each participant received a check for $1,500 for tuition, supplies and books. Now in its second year, the award supports graduating seniors in their pursuit of higher education and honors the memory of former Inner-City Arts board member Barbara Schreter. 1 Work by Jon Gomez, { CAP instructor and CalArts School of Film/Video alumnus 2 sandy and siouxsie by Shizu Saldamando, CAP instructor and CalArts School of Art MFA alumna 3 Airborne Toxic Event } Shizu Saldamando featured in Giant Robot Shizu is one of the artists featured in Giant Robot Magazine’s latest issue celebrating its 50th issue. The issue includes an interview with Shizu, entitled “Loca Motion” by Giant Robot’s co-founder, Martin Wong. Shizu is a graduate of CalArts’ School of Art MFA program and was a CAP instructor in Self-Help Graphics & Art Digital Media and Printmaking class. This feature comes after a slew of group shows included her work across Los Angeles and a solo show this past summer at Tropico de Nopal. CAP Youth Participant, Gabriel Torres, shines on the big screen If you went to the movie theater last fall, you might have seen a very familiar face filling the movie screen. It is the face of CAP participant Gabriel Torres acting alongside Ben Stiller in “Heartbreak Kid.” Gabriel is putting his acting skills learned from CAP’s Theater Program at Plaza de la Raza to use on the big screen, and already has performed in four films, including “Walkout”. At only fourteen years of age, and a high school freshman, Gabriel is also a member of the Screen Actors Guild and has his own agent. So keep your eyes open for this rising young actor! If you are a CAP youth participant, a former CAP youth participant, CAP student instructor, CAP alumni instructor, or CAP faculty member, please send your news to cap@calarts.edu for the CAP Activating section. Joan Dooley receives Teacher of the Year Award Joan Dooley is the winner of the 2007 Patron Saint of Photography Award, awarded by Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to recognizing outstanding teaching in photography. This annual award recognizes and rewards a high school, college or post-graduate level educator for their dedication and passion in the teaching of photography. Ms. Dooley has taught photography at Bell High School Humanitas Academy for eleven years and is an outstanding partner in CAP’s video class at Bell High School led by School of Film/Video faculty Nancy Buchanan. As this year’s firstprize winner, Joan was also awarded a cash prize. We are so proud of Joan for receiving this award and all the wonderful work she does with so much care for all her students. “The Three Little Pigs vs. Godzilla” takes Japan by storm Finally, Godzilla has met his ultimate match. The Three Little Pigs show no mercy to this feared monster in a short animated film entitled “The Three Little Pigs vs. Godzilla” by Sony Pictures Media Arts Program/CAP animation students and guided by CAP instructors Jenny Walsh and Steven Brown at William Reagh Los Angeles Photography Center. On October 6-8, 2007, “The Three Little Pigs vs. Godzilla” was screened at the Kids for Kids Animation Film Festival at Otemae University in Kyoto, Japan. The film is also a candidate in the festival’s Animation Contest, in their category for 13-15 year olds. “May Not Be Suitable For All Audiences” On October 13 and 20, 2007, many CAP instructors, faculty and former participants organized, performed and exhibited their work in “May Not Be Suitable For All Audiences.” The multi-disciplinary group show took place at the Market Gallery in the Garment District of downtown Los Angeles and included performances by Douglas Kearney, Vicky Grise, Luis Lopez and included photographs by David Jovel. CAP instructor and CalArts School of Art student C. Francisco Martinez was one of the organizers. Romina de los Santos is honored with Graduate Enrichment Fellowship at Top Dance Program Former CAP youth participant Romina de los Santos was recently accepted to Ohio State University’s MFA Dance Program this fall with a prestigious Graduate Enrichment Fellowship. OSU’s Dance Program is currently the top ranking dance program in the nation. CAP Youth Participants elected best musician and best artist of the year at Hart High School CAP youth participant Alessandra Barrett just received Hart High School's Best Musician Award. Alessandra has participated in the CAP/Santa Clarita Valley Arts Partnership Photography program. Another CAP youth participant, Chelsea Kowitz received the Best Artist Award, also at Hart High School. Chelsea is a participant in the CAP photo program. Their proud smiling faces can be found in Hart High School’s “Best of” section of their yearbook. Damian Berdakin, New Assistant Conductor of the Santa Clarita Valley Youth Orchestra Damian Berdakin, CAP instructor and CalArts School of Music student, has been hired as the new Assistant Conductor of the Santa Clarita Valley Youth Orchestra. Damian has been working at SCVYO since 2006 when he began teaching lower strings (cello and bass) to high school students as a CAP instructor. This past summer, he was invited to teach at their summer music program where he was able to put his skills to work by conducting two pieces in the orchestra’s summer concert. Now, Damian will be conducting and assisting SCVYO conductor Paul Sherman. He will also continue teaching in CAP’s Saturday Music Program. Congratulations, Damian! 11 March 16 CAP/Plaza Music Program Culminating Concert Music Studio, Plaza de la Raza, 2:00-4:00pm CALARTS CAP Spring 2008 Calendar January 24 CAP Forum Series: Mady Schutzman Joker Runs Wild CalArts, Lund Theater, 4:00 - 5:30pm A presentation on the work of Brazilian social activist and theatre director, Augusto Boal. Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed which seeks to transform passive spectators into “spect-actors,” and has been used by activists, therapists, educators, and artists on seven continents as a form of “rehearsal for revolution” in everyday life. Mady Schutzman will discuss her own adaptations of Boal’s work with social welfare students at USC and in the making of a documentary film about a Homeland Security antiterrorism training site in New Mexico. The CAP Forum Series brings leading artists, intellectuals, civic leaders, community activists and policy makers in conversation with the CalArts community. The series promotes learning and critical dialogue about artistic practices and strategies committed to community engagement, collaborative approaches and the arts as a catalyst for social change. CalArts is located at 24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia, CA 91355. This event is free and open to the public. January 26 February 22 CAP/ArtsCOOL Program Performance Plaza de la Raza, 10:00am-12:00pm This event will feature performances of Afro-Cuban percussion and dance, and Brazilian music and dance by students from Robert Lewis High School, Ramona High School and Eagle Tree High School participating in the CAP/ArtsCOOL program. The ArtsCOOL Program was developed in 2002 as a partnership between the CalArts Community Arts Partnership (CAP) program and the Los Angeles Unified School District Arts Education Branch and Educational Options Program. The options schools participating in this program each receive 30 weeks of arts programs taught by teams of CalArts faculty artists, student artists and alumni artists who share their expertise with up to 40 students in each school. The schools are located throughout Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley, South Los Angeles, East Los Angeles, Hollywood, Venice, Pacific Palisades, Huntington Park, Carson, Westchester, and downtown Los Angeles. For further information please contact CAP’s ArtsCOOL Coordinator Betty Lee at bettylee@calarts.edu. This event will take place at Plaza de la Raza, located at 3540 North Mission Road in Los Angeles and it is free and open to the public. February 25 CAP Forum Series: Ricardo Dominguez and DJ lotu5 CAP Student Instructors Literacy Training CalArts, Bijou Theater, 11:00am-12:45pm CalArts, Langley Hall, 10:00am-12:00pm Artists and activists Ricardo Dominguez and DJ lotu5 will give a presentation about their recent work with the Electronic Disturbance Theater, the Transborder Immigrant Tool, Hacklab and the Boredom Patrol of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army. The presentation will be followed by an open forum with the audience. This is a required training session for all CAP instructors. The training will be led by CalArts School of Critical Studies Faculty Doug Kearney. The training will focus on teaching strategies that can be implemented to address student literacy in all areas of the teaching of art. CalArts is located at 24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia, CA 91355. This event only open to CAP instructors. January 26 CAP Forum at Arts for the One World Conference Using Theater of the Oppressed Techniques in the Teaching and Making of Youth Theater in East LA The CAP Forum Series brings leading artists, intellectuals, civic leaders, community activists and policy makers in conversation with the CalArts community. The series promotes learning and critical dialogue about artistic practices and strategies committed to community engagement, collaborative approaches and the arts as a catalyst for social change. CalArts is located at 24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia, CA 91355. This event is free and open to the public. Coffee House Theater, CalArts, 2:00-3:30pm UPSET! is an award-winning original CAP play written in 2006 by Mady Schutzman in collaboration with youth participants in the CAP/Plaza de la Raza Theater program. The play incorporates many elements from the Theater of the Oppressed Joker system in its acute re-visiting of the LA riots and the events leading up to them. This forum will focus on the implementation of the Joker System in writing and creating contemporary issue-based youth theater. The forum will be led by Mady Schutzman, CalArts School of Critical Studies and CAP faculty, and BJ Dodge, CAP/Plaza de la Raza Theater Program Director. CalArts is located at 24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia, CA 91355. This event is free and open to the public. January 29 CalArts Latin Jazz Ensemble performs at Pico Canyon Elementary School February 27 CalArts African Ensemble at North Hollywood High School North Hollywood High School Auditorium, 1:20pm CAP brings the CalArts African Ensemble led by Beatrice Lawluvi, Andrew Grueschow, and Yeko Ladzekpo-Cole. The performance will be followed by a master workshop with North Hollywood High School music and dance students. This event is part of the CAP Jazz and World Music Program, which brings free performances by CalArts music and dance ensembles to public high schools in Los Angeles County. North Hollywood High School is located at 5231 Colfax Avenue, North Hollywood, CA 91601. This event is free and open to the students and teachers of North Hollywood High School. March 14 Pico Canyon Elementary School, Santa Clarita , 1:00pm and 3:00pm CAP/Plaza Dance Program Culminating Performance CAP brings the CalArts Latin Jazz Ensemble led by CalArts School of Music faculty David Roitstein to Pico Canyon Elementary School as part of CAP’s Share the World Program, through a partnership with the City of Santa Clarita Arts and Events Department. Through this program, students in public schools in the Santa Clarita Valley can experience more than twenty diverse CalArts dance and world music ensembles ranging from the soulbearing music of Persia, to the warm voices of West Africa’s talking drums, to the eclectic playfulness of jazz and contemporary improvisation. Dance Studio, Plaza de la Raza, 5:00pm Pico Canyon Elementary School is located at 25255 Pico Canyon Road, Stevenson Ranch, CA 91381. This event is open to the students and teachers of Pico Canyon Elementary School. February 21 CalArts Latin Jazz Ensemble performs at Hoover High School Hoover High School Auditorium, 11:45am-2:00pm CAP brings the CalArts Latin Jazz Ensemble to Hoover for our popular annual concert of Latin music from yesterday and today. The performance will be followed by a master workshop lead by CalArts School of Music faculty David Roitsten with Hoover High School students in Mr. Craig Kupka’s Latin Jazz Band. This event is part of the CAP Jazz and World Music Program, which brings free performances by CalArts music and dance ensembles to public high schools in Los Angeles County. Hoover High School is located at 651 Glenwood Road, Glendale, CA 91202. This event is free and open to the students and teachers of Hoover High School. This event will showcase individual and collaborative original modern dance pieces choreographed and performed by the CAP participants. This program is led by CalArts School of Dance faculty member Francesca Penzani and CalArts School of Dance student instructors. The performance will take place in the dance studio at Plaza de la Raza. Plaza de la Raza is located at 3540 North Mission Road in Los Angeles. This event is free and open to the public. March 14 7:30pm March 15 2:00pm CAP/Plaza de la Raza Puppetry Program Performances The Road to Nowhere: How We Got There From Where We Started Margo Albert Theater, Plaza de la Raza Youth participants in the CAP/Plaza de la Raza Puppetry Program will present an original piece of puppet theater created in collaboration with CalArts student instructors and under the direction of CalArts School of Theater alumna Shannon Scrofano and Diego Garza. The puppetry program at Plaza de la Raza is a collaboration between the CalArts Community Arts Partnership, Plaza de la Raza, and the Cotsen Center for Puppetry and the Arts. The performances will take place at Plaza de la Raza located at 3540 North Mission Road in Los Angeles. This performance are free and open to the public. Reservations are advised. For reservations please call Plaza de la Raza at (323) 223-2475. Youth participants in the CAP/Plaza de la Raza Music Program will perform pieces ranging from rock music, jazz, voice ensembles, and improvisational works. This program provides instrumental instruction in piano, drums, guitar, voice, and theory and composition. The program is taught by CalArts School of Music student instructors and it is coordinated by CAP/Plaza Music Program Coordinator and CalArts School of Music alumnus Noah Harmon. The concert will take place at Plaza de la Raza located at 3540 North Mission Road in Los Angeles. This performance is free and open to the public. March 18 Sharp Three Ensemble performance at Marshall High School Marshall High School Auditorium, 10:15am CAP brings the Sharp Three Ensemble, composed of three talented CalArts School of Music alumni, to Marshall High School. This ensemble’s well-balanced blend of Eastern and Western music will perform original pieces inspired by the jazz, rock, Balkan, and Western classical music traditions. Their concert will be followed by a master workshop with the members of the ensemble and Ms. Donna Pakkarri’s Marshall High School music students. This event is part of the CAP Jazz and World Music Program, which brings free performances by CalArts music and dance ensembles to public high schools in Los Angeles County. Marshall High School is located at 3939 Tracy Street, LosAngeles, CA 90027.This event is free and open to the students and teachers of Marshall High School. March 19 CAP Pedagogy Series with BJ Dodge Serious Play: Integrating Games Into the Teaching and Making of Art Lund Theater, CalArts, 12:15-1:45pm April 10 CalArts Balinese Ensemble performance and workshop at LA International High School LA International High School, 1:30pm CAP brings the CalArts Balinese Ensemble to LA International High School for a memorable performance and workshop with the students. The ensemble is led by two globally recognized masters of Balinese music and dance, and CalArts School of Music faculty I Nyoman and Nanik Wenten. Musicians will perform traditional and contemporary Balinese compositions while dancers, in full Balinese dress, will accompany them. This event is part of the CAP Jazz and World Music Program, which brings free performances by CalArts music and dance ensembles to public high schools in Los Angeles County. The school is located at 6218 Beard Street, Los Angeles, CA 90042. This event is free and open to the students and staff of LA International High School. April 13 CAP Saturday Music Program Culminating Concert CalArts, Main Gallery, 4:00pm Participants in the CAP Saturday Music Program, along with their CalArts School of Music student instructors, will perform in a free concert in the CalArts Main Gallery. The program will include classical, jazz, vocal ensemble and world percussion pieces among others. This CAP program offers master classes for up to one hundred elementary, middle and high school students. Classes include theory, composition, vocal ensemble, percussion, chamber ensemble, jazz ensemble, and more. This program is coordinated by School of Music alumnus and CAP Saturday Music Program Coordinator Drew Jorgensen. CalArts is located at 24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia, CA 91355. The recital is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception. April 24 SHOW UP! Art, Community Engagement and Social Change May 3 Animation, Photography and Video Screening REDCAT Theater, 2:00pm This free screening event features the premieres of works by Los Angeles teenage filmmakers, animators and photographers from the CalArts Community Arts Partnership (CAP) programs with Inner-City Arts, Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies, Santa Clarita Valley Boys and Girls Club, Self-Help Graphics and Art, Visual Communications, and Bell High School. This screening will take place at the REDCAT Theater located at 631 West 2nd Street in downtown Los Angeles. For reservations please call the REDCAT’s Box Office at 213 237-2800. This event is free and open to the public. May 4 CAP/Art-in-the-Park Teen Music Concert REDCAT Theater, 2:00pm This free concert will showcase talented young musicians and performers from the Art-in-the-Park Lalo Guerrero School of Music. The eclectic program will include performances by vocal ensembles, rock bands and guitar ensembles among others. The concert will take place at the REDCAT Theater located at 631 West 2nd Street in downtown Los Angeles. For reservations please call the REDCAT’s Box Office at 213 237-2800. This event is free and open to the public. May 7 CAP/William Hart High School Creative Writing Program Culminating Reading William Hart High School, 5:00pm The event will celebrate the publication of an anthology of writings by William Hart High School E.S.L. students participating in this CAP creative writing program. Students will be reading and performing a selection of texts written during this year-long creative writing program. This program is a collaboration among the CalArts Community Arts Partnership (CAP), William S. Hart High School, the CalArts School of Critical Studies and the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations. The program is lead by CalArts School of Critical Studies faculty member Mady Schutzman and three teams of CalArts School of Critical Studies graduate students. B.J. Dodge, CAP/Plaza de la Raza Theater Program Director, will present a workshop on how to break the ice when teaching art to young people. These exercises can morph across disciplines and give instructors a range of strategies for community and team building. It will also provide some ideas for integrating ritual activities into the culmination of art projects involving youth. Theater games such as trust exercises, Liberation Theater games and improvisational activities are easy for dedicated players: not just actors, but writers, visual artists, dancers and musicians. Let's collaborate! REDCAT Theater, 7:00pm The CAP Pedagogy Series is a dynamic forum that brings together leading arts organizations, artists and educators and CalArts students in presentations and workshops about the teaching of the arts and the advancement of arts education. This series will focus on innovative pedagogical tools and approaches, strategies for community building through the arts, and the role of the teaching artist in today's society. Panelists include Karen Atkinson, Nancy Buchanan, Harry Gamboa, Nobuko Miyamoto, and Amy Shimson-Santo. CAP/Inner-City Arts Elementary Animation Program Screening REDCAT is located in downtown Los Angeles at 631 W. 2nd Street, on the northeast corner of the intersection with Hope Street. This event is free and open to the public. For reservations please call the REDCAT’s Box Office at 213 237-2800. El Sereno Elementary School, Time to be determined CalArts is located at 24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia, CA 91355. This event is free and open to the public. April 3 CAP Forum Series with Sergio de la Torre Screening of Maquilapolis followed by forum with Sergio de la Torre Bijou Theater, CalArts, 9:30am-12:00pm The acclaimed documentary film MAQUILÁPOLIS provides a piercing look at globalization through the eyes of Mexican factory workers. To create MAQUILAPOLIS, filmmakers Sergio de la Torre and Vicky Funari brought together factory workers in Tijuana and community organizations in Mexico and the U.S. to collaborate on a film that depicts globalization through the eyes of the women who live on its edge. The factory workers who appear in the film have been involved in every stage of production, from planning to shooting, from scripting to outreach. This collaborative process breaks with the traditional documentary practice of dropping into a location, shooting and leaving with the "goods," which would only repeat the pattern of the maquiladora itself. The process embraces subjectivity as a value and a goal. It merges artmaking with community development to ensure that the film's voice will be truly that of its subjects. The screening of Maquilapolis will be followed by a forum with Sergio de la Torre, one of the film’s directors. The CAP Forum Series brings leading artists, intellectuals, civic leaders, community activists and policy makers in conversation with the CalArts community. The series promotes learning and critical dialogue about artistic practices and strategies committed to community engagement, collaborative approaches and the arts as a catalyst for social change. This forum is made possible by CAP, the First Year Experience Program and the School of Art. CalArts is located at 24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia, CA 91355. This event is free and open to the public. This free forum, organized by the CalArts Community Arts Partnership (CAP) invites a renowned group of artists, performers and writers whose practice is centered on their commitment to community to engage the audience in dialogue about the possibilities of social change through art. Members of the panel will discuss some of their current projects and will share their perspectives on trends and strategies used to engage diverse communities and institutions while affecting lasting change in the fabric of society. April 26 CAP/Watts Towers Arts Center Piano Program concert at Watts Towers Arts Center Watts Towers Arts Center, 1:00pm Participants in the CAP/Watts Towers Arts Center piano program will perform in a public piano recital at the Watts Towers Arts Center. The students attended a 24-week piano course taught by CalArts School of Music alumna Brenda McGee. Watts Towers Arts Center is located at 1727 East 107th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90002. This concert is free and open to the public. April 26 Santa Clarita Valley Youth Orchestra Concert, “Music from the New World” Performing Arts Center, College of the Canyons, 7:30pm The Santa Clarita Valley Youth Orchestra is one the few orchestral music programs available in the Los Angeles area that trains students to perform masterpieces from all periods of the orchestral and chamber music repertoire. Through a partnership with CAP, CalArts School of Music students have been coaching SCVYO sectionals and will be performing with the students. The program will include 17th century masterworks by D’vorak and Copeland. The Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center at College of the Canyons is located at 26455 Rockwell Canyon Road in Santa Clarita, CA 91355.For tickets please contact the College of the Canyons Performing Arts Center’s Box Office at 661 362-5304. May 1, 2, 3, 9 7:30pm May 10 2:00pm and 7:30pm CAP/ Plaza de la Raza Theater Program performances of “Private Eddie U.S.A.” Margo Albert Theater, Plaza de la Raza This year’s spring production from the CAP/Plaza de la Raza Youth Theater Program is a new drama written by Culture Clash member Herbert Siguenza and staged with a cast of 45 middle and high school-age CAP participants. A play inspired by El Soldado Razo –the classic work by Luis Valdez that was first performed in 1971 in connection with the Chicano Moratorium antiwar movement—Private Eddie U.S.A. takes a hard look at the impact of the war in Iraq as mourners at a funeral enact scenes from a fallen soldier’s life. William Hart High School is located at 24825 Newhall Avenue, Newhall, CA 91321. This event is free and open to the public. May 7 Each semester, CAP, in partnership with Inner-City Arts, brings animation education to an elementary school in Los Angeles. This event will feature an original collaborative animated film conceived, edited and directed by fifth graders under the guidance of CalArts School of Film/Video Assistant Dean and Character Animation faculty Leo F. Hobaica, Jr. and CalArts School of Film/Video students and alumni. This event is free and open to the public. The screening will take place at El Sereno Elementary School. For event time please contact the CAP office at 661 291.3037 May 20 CAP/My Friend’s Place Creative Writing Program Culminating Reading My Friend’s Place, 1:00-2:30 pm Participants attending the CAP/My Friend’s Place Creative Writing program will be reading their works of poetry, stories, and essays exploring personal identity and social issues. As part of this event an anthology of writings and artwork created by the participants and published by the CalArts Community Arts Partnership will be launched. This event will take place at My Friend’s Place located at 5850 Hollywood Blvd., in Hollywood. May 23 CAP/SCVYO Concert “Baroque Pearls of the Old to the New” Performing Arts Center, College of the Canyons, 7:30pm The Santa Clarita Valley Youth Orchestra is one the few orchestral music programs available in the Los Angeles area that trains students to perform masterpieces from all periods of the orchestral and chamber music repertoire. Through a partnership with CAP, CalArts School of Music students have been coaching SCVYO sectionals and will be performing with the students. The program will include works by Haydn, Schubert and the world premiere of a new commissioned work by CalArts School of Music student and CAP Music Instructor Derrick Spiva Jr. The Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center at College of the Canyons is located at 26455 Rockwell Canyon Road in Santa Clarita, CA 91355.For tickets please contact the College of the Canyons Performing Arts Center’s Box Office at 661 362.5304 May 23-24 CAP/Plaza de la Raza Theater Program Performances of "Private Eddie U.S.A." REDCAT Theater, 7:30pm This year’s spring production from the CAP/Plaza de la Raza Youth Theater Program is a new drama written by Culture Clash member Herbert Siguenza and staged with a cast of 45 middle and high school-age CAP participants. A play inspired by El Soldado Razo –the classic work by Luis Valdez that was first performed in 1971 in connection with the Chicano Moratorium antiwar movement—Private Eddie U.S.A. takes a hard look at the impact of the war in Iraq as mourners at a funeral enact scenes from a fallen soldier’s life. These performances are free and open to the public and will take place at the REDCAT Theater located at 631 West 2nd Street in downtown Los Angeles. For reservations please call the REDCAT’s Box Office at 213.237.2800 June 5 CAP/ArtsCOOL Program Screening REDCAT Theater, 10:00am-1:00pm This free screening features original short videos and animated films created by students participating in the ArtsCOOL program at Del Rey, Jack London, Phoenix, Will Rogers and Walt Whitman high schools. The ArtsCOOL Program was developed in 2002 as a partnership between the CalArts Community Arts Partnership (CAP) program and the Los Angeles Unified School District Arts Education Branch and Educational Options Program. The options schools participating in this program each receive 30 weeks of arts programs taught by teams of CalArts faculty artists, student artists and alumni artists who share their expertise with up to 40 students in each school. The schools are located throughout Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley, South Los Angeles, East Los Angeles, Hollywood, Venice, Pacific Palisades, Huntington Park, Carson, Westchester, and downtown Los Angeles. For further information please contact CAP’s ArtsCOOL Coordinator Betty Lee at bettylee@calarts.edu. This screening will take place at the REDCAT Theater located at 631 West 2nd Street in downtown Los Angeles. For reservations please call the REDCAT’s Box Office at 213.237.2800 This event is free and open to the public. June 8 CAP/Sony Pictures Media Arts Program Screening REDCAT Theater, 2:00pm The Sony Pictures Media Arts Program is CAP's after-school program for middle school students who learn drawing, animation, and new media and create original films each year at Banning's Landing Community Center in Wilmington, Center for the Arts Eagle Rock in Eagle Rock, San Fernando Gardens Community Service Center in Pacoima, Watts Towers Arts Center in Watts, and at the William Reagh Los Angeles Photography Center near MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. SPMAP is a partnership among the CalArts Community Arts Partnership (CAP), the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and Sony Pictures Entertainment. The screening will showcase the animated work conceived, edited and directed by the CAP/ SPMAP participants. This screening is free and open to the public and will take place at the CalArts REDCAT Theater located at 631 West 2nd Street in Downtown Los Angeles. For reservations please call the REDCAT’s Box Office at 213 237.2800 June 10 and 11 CAP/ArtsCOOL Program Culminating Exhibition and Performances CalArts, 10:00am-1:00pm This two-day event will feature an exhibition of artwork by high school students who participated in CAP’s ArtsCOOL Program with Los Angeles Unified School District Option Schools. The exhibition will take place in CalArts Galleries D300 and D301. The event will also feature performances, readings, and dance and music ensemble performances by student participants in the ArtsCOOL program. The gallery exhibition will include works by students from Central East Los Angeles, Independence, Lewis, Monterey, San Antonio, Thoreau and Wooden high schools. Students from Eagle Tree, Amelia Earhart, Einstein, Hope, Jefferson, Leonis, Ramona, Temescal and Wooden high schools will present performances. The ArtsCOOL Program was developed in 2002 as a partnership between the CalArts Community Arts Partnership (CAP) program and the Los Angeles Unified School District Arts Education Branch and Educational Options Program. These options schools participating in this program each receive 30 weeks of arts programs taught by teams of CalArts faculty artists, student artists and alumni artists who share their expertise with up to 40 students in each school. The schools are located throughout Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley, South Los Angeles, East Los Angeles, Hollywood, Venice, Pacific Palisades, Huntington Park, Carson, Westchester, and downtown Los Angeles. This event is free and open to the public. For further information please contact CAP’s ArtsCOOL Coordinator Betty Lee at bettylee@calarts.edu. This event will take place at CalArts located at 24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia, CA 91355. Plaza de la Raza is located at 3540 North Mission Road in Los Angeles. These performances are free and open to the public. Reservations are advised. For reservations please call Plaza de la Raza at 323 223-2475. May 2 CAP 18th Anniversary Celebration Plaza de la Raza, 10:00pm Join us as we celebrate CAP’s 18th birthday! We will be salsa dancing to the music of the CalArts Latin Jazz Ensemble led by master pianist and CalArts School of Music faculty David Roitstein. Plaza de la Raza is located at 3540 North Mission Road in Los Angeles. This event is free and open to the public. 12 13 For more information about all CAP classes, please call 661 222-2708. SPRING 2008 CAP AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAMS: All CAP After-School programs are free. No previous experience is required and registration is open to students ages 13 to 19, with the exception of the media arts programs for middle school students (ages 10-14). Register on the first day of class. Parent’s/Guardian’s signature will be required on the participant’s registration form. Attendance to all sessions is required. Art-in-the-Park Music Program This twenty-week music program features small group and individualized music instruction for teenagers ages 13 to 19. The program culminates with public performances in April and May at Art-in-the-Park, REDCAT, and other community performance venues. class dates jan 28 - april 8, 2008 times bass mondays, 4:00 - 4:30 pm music theory mondays, 4:30 - 5:00 pm band mondays, 5:00 - 6:00 pm beginning guitar mondays, 6:00 – 7:00 pm percussion wednesdays, 4:00 - 7:00 pm percussion fridays, 4:00 – 7:00 pm instructors calarts school of music alumnus noah harmon and calarts school of music student instructors held at Art-in-the-Park 5568 via marisol los angeles ca 90042 t: 323 259.0550 Banning’s Landing Community Center Sony Pictures Media Arts Program (SPMAP) This thirty-week media arts program is held twice a week, after-school for middle school students (ages 10 to 14) at the Banning’s Landing Community Center in Wilmington. The workshops cover drawing, painting, animation and media arts, taught by CalArts faculty, alumni and students. The middle school students learn drawing and painting techniques, drawing from the model, how to animate, how to put together an art portfolio and how to create artwork on computers. The program culminates in a public exhibition and screening of the artwork produced by the students. This program is part of the Sony Pictures Media Arts Program, a partnership between the CalArts Community Arts Partnership, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and Sony Pictures Entertainment. class dates jan 21 - june 11, 2008 time mondays & wednesdays, 4:00-7:00 pm instructors calarts school of film/video alumni ruben esqueda and levi brewster, and calarts student instructors held at Banning’s Landing Community Center 100 w water street wilmington ca 90744 t: 310 522.2015 CalArts/CAP Digital Media Arts Program Entitled “Going Green”, this class includes discussions and hands-on conceptual projects using Adobe Creative Suite software, scanners and digital cameras. Large-format color posters will be produced based on environmental themes such as eco-friendly living, sustainable landscapes and green roofs, reducing our carbon footprints, creating cleaner and healthier communities, clean energy, and global warming. This class is for productive high school students who are willing to form personal views for content in their work. Students will be encouraged to focus on contentbased social statements, political comments, or cultural narratives. Regular attendance is preferred for working in class. class dates feb 5 - may 27, 2008 time tuesdays, 4:30 - 7:00 pm instructors calarts school of art faculty shelley stepp and calarts student instructors held at CalArts Mac Lab 24700 mcbean parkway valencia ca 91355 t: 661 222.2708 (cap) Center for the Arts Eagle Rock Sony Pictures Media Arts Program (SPMAP) This thirty-week media arts program is held twice a week, after-school for middle school students (ages 10 to 14) at the Center for the Arts Eagle Rock in Eagle Rock. The workshops cover drawing, painting, animation and media arts, taught by CalArts faculty, alumni and students. The middle school students learn drawing and painting techniques, drawing from the model, how to animate, how to put together an art portfolio and how to create art work on computers. The program culminates in a public 14 exhibition and screening of the artwork produced by the students. This program is part of the Sony Pictures Media Arts Program, a partnership between the CalArts Community Arts Partnership, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and Sony Pictures Entertainment. class dates jan 23 - june 13, 2008 time wednesdays & fridays, 3:30 - 6:30 pm instructors calarts school of art faculty chris peters, calarts school of film/video alumnus pouya afshar, and calarts student instructors held at the Center for the Arts Eagle Rock 2225 colorado boulevard los angeles ca 90041 t: 323 226.1617 Inner-City Arts High School Animation Program This CAP program begins in October and continues through May. Twenty-four weeks of workshops are held for 20 to 40 high school students. The students learn basic animation, zoetropes, flip books, hand animation, computer animation, and drawing on film. The class includes a 24-hour animation marathon weekend in which students produce collaborative films. The students each create an animated short and collaborative film which is screened in culminating festivals at Inner-City Arts, the REDCAT Theater, CalArts, and other venues. All students receive DVDs of their work. class dates jan 26 - may 3, 2008 time saturdays, 10:00 am - 1:00 pm instructors calarts school of film/video faculty leo hobaica and calarts student instructors held at Inner-City Arts 720 kohler los angeles ca 90021 t: 213 627.9621 Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies (LACPS) Youth Photography/Public Art Program The Spring Semester LACPS/CAP program provides twelve Saturday workshops for up to 50 high school students. The course takes place in the state of the art Photography Facility of the Art School at CalArts. LACPS/CAP students work closely with faculty and student instructors and are taught a variety of darkroom skills, and computer skills while they focus on creative assignments and work towards a public exhibition. An exhibition of photographs and mockups of the posters is presented at CalArts and other venues. The bus shelter images are displayed in many public locations throughout the city of Los Angeles. class dates march 1 - may 24, 2008 time saturdays, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm held at California Institute of the Arts 24700 mcbean parkway valencia ca 91355 t: 661 222.2708 (cap) instructors calarts school of art faculty john bache, andy freeman, calarts school of art alumnus lewis mauk, and calarts student instructors Van pickups are available at 9:00am at Franklin, Cleveland, and Lincoln High Schools. Plaza de la Raza Advanced Music Training Program This CAP program provides advanced instrumental instruction for up to 100 teenagers in trumpet, guitar, bass, drumset, voice, piano, songwriting, music theory and composition and several music ensembles, including salsa band. Eighteen weeks of instruction takes place at Plaza de la Raza beginning in October and continuing through March. The workshops culminate in a recital at Plaza de la Raza in March. class dates jan 11 - march 14, 2008 times drums wednesdays, 4:00 - 4:30 pm music appreciation wednesdays, 4:30 - 5:00 pm bass wednesdays, 5:00 - 6:00 pm violin wednesdays, 5:00 - 6:00 pm guitar wednesdays, 6:00 – 7:00 pm music appreciation wednesdays, 4:00 - 7:00 pm music appreciation fridays, 4:00 – 7:00 pm bass fridays, 6:00 – 7:00 pm voice lessons fridays, 4:00 - 7:00 pm music appreciation fridays, 4:00 – 7:00 pm guitar fridays, 6:00 – 7:00 pm guitar ensemble fridays, 6:00 – 7:00 pm rock band fridays, 6:00 – 7:00 pm instructors calarts school of music alumnus noah harmon and calarts school of music student instructors held at Plaza de la Raza 3540 north mission road los angeles ca 90031 t: 323 223.2475 Plaza de la Raza Modern Dance Program This 18-week program for middle and high school students focuses on modern dance techniques and choreography. Participants create individual original pieces as well as collaborations with the entire class. The dance classes are held once a week in the dance studios at Plaza de la Raza. The dance program students perform in a year-end dance recital at Plaza de la Raza. class dates jan 11 - march 14, 2008 time fridays, 4:00 - 6:00 pm instructors calarts school of dance faculty francesca penzani and calarts school of dance student instructors held at the Plaza de la Raza 3540 north mission road los angeles ca 90031 t: 323 223.2475 Plaza de la Raza Puppetry Program This 18-week puppetry production class gives students an opportunity to collaboratively create a puppet play. Instructors teach workshops in puppet and mask making using a variety of materials including cardboard, cloth, paper maché, and found objects. Creative writing and visual art are also important components of the class as well as filming and video editing using state-of-the-art digital equipment. All of these elements culminate in public performances in the Spring at Plaza de la Raza. class dates jan 9 - march 22, 2008 time wednesdays, 5:00 - 7:00 pm instructors calarts school of theater alumna shannon scrofano, calarts school of art alumnus diego garza and calarts student instructors held at Plaza de la Raza 3540 north mission road los angeles ca 90031 t: 323 223.2475 Plaza de la Raza Youth Theatre Program This CAP program provides approximately 45 high school and junior high school students with thirty weeks of instruction in acting, movement, and voice. Students collaborate with teachers, a composer, and a playwright to create an original piece of theater. Artist specialists such as costume, set and lighting designers will join the process in layers during the course of the work to further collaborate in making a full production. A class in design will be offered as an optional supplement for those who are interested in design and technical aspects of production. Classes are held three evenings per week, beginning in October and continuing through May. Free public performances are held in May at Plaza de la Raza and at the REDCAT Theater in downtown Los Angeles. class dates jan 14 - may 31, 2008 times beginning theatre mondays, 6:00 - 8:00 pm movement for theatre tuesdays, 6:00 - 8:00 pm int/adv theatre thursdays, 6:00 - 8:00 pm theatre design saturdays, 10:00 – 12:00 pm (jan 14 - may 31, 2008) instructors former calarts school of theater faculty barbara june dodge, calarts school of theater faculty marvin tunney and calarts student instructors held at Plaza de la Raza 3540 north mission road los angeles ca 90031 t: 323 223.2475 Classes will meet for rehearsals everyday (Monday thru Friday) from 5:00-8:00pm starting on March 17th until the opening of the play in May. San Fernando Gardens Community Service Center Sony Pictures Media Arts Program (SPMAP) This thirty-week media arts program is held twice-weekly after-school for middle school students (ages 10 to 14) at the San Fernando Gardens Community Service Center in Pacoima. The workshop covers drawing, painting, animation and media arts, taught by CalArts faculty, alumni and students. The middle school students learn drawing and painting techniques, uses of various media, animation production, and basic uses of the video camera. The program culminates in a public exhibition and screening of the art work produced by the students. This program is part of the Sony Pictures Media Arts Program, a partnership between the CalArts Community Arts Partnership, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and Sony Pictures Entertainment. class dates jan 21 - june 10, 2008 time mondays & tuesdays, 4:00 - 7:00 pm instructors calarts school of film/video faculty john mahoney, calarts school of film/video alumnus jonny gomez and calarts student instructors held at San Fernando Gardens Community Service Center 10896 lehigh avenue pacoima ca 91331 t: 818 834.9266 Santa Clarita Valley Arts Partnership Saturday Music Program This program offers twenty weeks of Saturday master classes for up to one hundred elementary, middle and high school students. Classes include theory, composition, vocal ensemble, percussion, strings ensemble, chamber ensemble, jazz ensemble , and more. The program culminates with semester-end recitals performed in the CalArts Main Gallery. class dates jan 26 - april 12, 2008 times saturdays, 1:00-5:00pm theory i theory ii/composition computer music is rhythm a payne in your class vocal ensemble strings ensemble jazz ensemble a latin/world percussion ensemble chamber ensemble jazz ensemble b computer music latin ensemble 1:00-2:00pm 2:00-3:00pm 2:00-3:00pm 2:00-3:00pm 3:00-4:00pm 3:00-4:00pm 3:00-4:00pm 3:00-4:00pm 4:00-5:00pm 4:00-5:00pm 3:00-4:00pm 4:00-5:00pm instructors calarts school of music student instructors under the direction of calarts school of music associate dean susan allen and calarts school of music alumnus drew jorgensen held at CalArts, School of Music, Rehearsal Rooms 24700 mcbean parkway valencia ca 91355 t: 661 222.2708 Santa Clarita Valley Youth Orchestra The Santa Clarita Valley Youth Orchestra is the premiere youth orchestra in the Santa Clarita Valley. The organization has three levels of orchestras for elementary through college age students and performs a variety of music from the classical genre. CalArts student instructors play alongside the students as section leaders/mentors. Classes culminate in a performance at the College of the Canyons Performing Arts Center. Registration for the classes is handled by the College of the Canyons. times advanced orchestra intermediate orchestra mondays, 6:00 - 8:30 pm saturdays, 9:00 - 12:30 pm instructors damian berdakin, russell moss, melinda rice, tara schwab and chris wheeler held at College of the Canyons 24655 rockwell canyon road santa clarita, ca 91355 more info at www.scvyo.org Classes are held in the fall and spring sessions. Please call COC for registration details: Tara Schwab, Orchestra Manager, 310.422.4509 Self-Help Graphics & Art Digital Media Program This is a 30-week, free-of-charge program for teenagers (ages 15 to 18) which takes place once-a-week at Self-Help Graphics & Art. Students learn computer design applications, printmaking, T-Shirt design, screen printing and digital video production. The program culminates with an exhibition of the work at Self-Help Graphics & Art, at the California Institute of the Arts, as well as with a screening at REDCAT. class dates jan 15 - may 27, 2008 time tuesdays, 4:00 - 7:00 pm instructors calarts school of theater alumnus reggie coleman and calarts student instructors held at Self-Help Graphics & Art 3802 cesar chavez avenue ca 90063-1896 t: 323 881.6444 Watts Towers Arts Center Sony Pictures Media Arts Program (SPMAP) This 30-week media arts program is held twice a week, afterschool and on Saturdays for middle school students (ages 10 to 14) at the Watts Towers Arts Center in Watts. The workshops cover drawing, painting, animation and media arts, taught by CalArts faculty, alumni and students. The middle school students learn drawing and painting techniques, drawing from the model, how to animate, how to put together an art portfolio and how to create art work on computers. The program culminates in a public exhibition and screening of the art work produced by the students. This program is part of the Sony Pictures Media Arts Program, a partnership between the CalArts Community Arts Partnership, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and Sony Pictures Entertainment. class dates jan 23 - june 14, 2008 times wednesdays 4 -7 pm & saturdays, 11 am - 2 pm instructors calarts school of critical studies faculty betty lee, calarts school of film/video alumnus pouya afshar and calarts student instructors held at Watts Towers Arts Center 1727 east 107th street los angeles ca 90002 t: 213 847.4646 CAP CLASS SCHEDULE Watts Towers Arts Center Piano Program This 24-week CAP course is an introduction to playing the piano for young people held at the Watts Towers Arts Center. Students learn the basics of music although all levels of experience are welcomed. The program culminates in a public piano recital held at the Watts Towers Arts Center in the Spring. class dates jan 23 - april 26, 2008 times wednesdays, 3 - 7 pm & saturdays, 10 am - 4 pm instructor calarts school of music alumna brenda mcgee held at Watts Towers Arts Center 1727 east 107th street los angeles ca 90002 t: 213 847.4646 William Reagh Los Angeles Photography Center Sony Pictures Media Arts Program (SPMAP) This thirty-week media arts program is held twice a week, after-school and on Saturdays for middle school students (ages 10 to 14) at the William Reagh Los Angeles Photography Center near MacArthur Park. The workshops cover drawing, painting, animation and media arts, taught by CalArts faculty, alumni and students. The middle school students learn drawing and painting techniques, drawing from the model, how to animate, how to put together an art portfolio and how to create art work on computers. The program culminates in a public exhibition and screening of the art work produced by the students. This program is part of the Sony Pictures Media Arts Program, a partnership between CalArts Community Arts Partnership, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and Sony Pictures Entertainment. class dates jan 23 - june 14, 2008 time wednesdays 4 - 7 pm & saturdays 11 am - 2 pm instructors calarts school of film/video alumni javier barboza and jonny gomez, and calarts student instructors held at William Reagh Los Angeles Photography Center 2332 w fourth street los angeles ca 90057 t: 213 382.8133 CAP IN-SCHOOL PROGRAMS: CAP is also engaged in in-school programming in many school sites throughout Los Angeles County. These free arts workshops are available to students in the partner schools and organizations. ArtsCOOL Program The ArtsCOOL Program was developed in 2002 as a partnership between CAP and the Los Angeles Unified School District Arts Education Branch and Educational Options Program. Currently, ArtsCOOL offers programming at 20 Options High Schools in Los Angeles County. These schools each receive 30 weeks of arts programs which meet once-a-week for two hours per class. The classes are taught by teams of CalArts faculty artists, current CalArts students and CalArts alumni who share their expertise in visual arts, writing, film/video, and the performing arts. The schools are located throughout Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley, South Los Angeles, East Los Angeles, Hollywood, Venice, Pacific Palisades, Carson, Huntington Park, Westchester, and downtown Los Angeles areas. Hundreds of high school students participate in the culminating performances and exhibition held annually at California Institute of the Arts, Plaza de la Raza, REDCAT (The Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater) located in the Walt Disney Concert Hall Complex, and other venues. Option schools currently participating in the CAP/ArtsCOOL Program are: Central East Los Angeles High School Del Rey High School Eagle Tree High School Amelia Earhart High School Albert Einstein High School John Hope High School Independence High School Miguel Leonis High School Robert Lewis High School Jack London High School Monterey High School New Jefferson High School Phoenix High School Ramona High School Will Rogers High School San Antonio High School Temescal Canyon High School Henry Thoreau High School Walt Whitman High School John Wooden High School instructors calarts faculty members marvin tunney, beatrice lawluvi, darcy huebler, steve brown, leo hobaica, niki rousso-schindler, among others, and calarts alumni reggie coleman, miyo hernandez, yeko ladzekpo-cole, jahmad rollins, morena santos, pouya afshar, chris armstrong, sandy ding, eddie felix, juliana sankaran-felix, among others, along with calarts student instructors, and visiting artist rose portillo. This program is available only to high school students attending the LAUSD Options High Schools participating in this program. If you would like further information about this program please contact CAP’s ArtsCOOL Coordinator at323.304.1599 Bell High School/Visual Communications Video Program This is a 20-week program for teenagers (ages 15 to 18) which takes place after-school, once-a-week at Bell High School during the school year. The course includes learning basic video techniques, lighting, sound, interview techniques, story development and story boarding, and digital editing on state-of-the-art digital equipment. The workshops culminate in screenings of the students’ videos at Bell High School, Visual Communications, CalArts, at REDCAT Theater, on the World Wide Web and other venues. All students receive DVDs of their work. class dates jan 23 - apr 30, 2008 classes are on wednesdays Bell High School teacher joan dooley time 2:00 - 4:00 pm held at Bell High School 4328 bell avenue bell ca 90201 t: 323.560.1800 instructors calarts school of film/video faculty nancy buchanan and calarts student instructors Franklin High School Playwriting Workshop This two-semester long CAP program is a collaboration among CAP, Franklin High School, and the CalArts School of Theater. Twenty to thirty students in Mr. David Levine’s theater classes participate once-a-week with CalArts instructors. The students learn theater games, exercises, and work one-on-one with the CalArts graduate students to create original five-minute plays. The plays are all presented at CalArts’ New Works Festival in the Spring, acted by the MFA acting students with the high school playwrights on stage. time & dates wednesdays classroom teacher david levine instructors calarts school of theater alumna vicky grise, and calarts school of theater graduate students under the direction of calarts school of theater faculty marissa chibas held at Franklin High School 820 north avenue 54 los angeles ca 90042 t: 323 550.2000 Gertz-Ressler High School – Vocal Program The Alliance For College-Ready Public Schools The vocal program takes place for 10 weeks during the Fall semester and 10 weeks during the Spring semester. This program focuses on classical vocal repertoire as well as contemporary, jazz, and world music traditions. Through a curriculum encompassing many musical idioms, students will expand their technical and expressive boundaries with the study of improvisation, extended vocal techniques, and vocal techniques from around the world. The program culminates with a public performance at the high school in the spring. class dates feb 4 - april 14, 2008 time mondays, 3:45 - 5:00 pm classroom teacher christine snyder instructor calarts school of music student wendy vazquez held at Gertz-Ressler High School 2023 south union avenue los angeles ca 90007 t: 213 745.8141 f: 213 745.8142 Principal howard lappin { background image arts and crafts by Coral Fowler } Inner-City Arts Elementary School Animation Program William Hart High School Writing Program Each semester, CAP brings animation education to an elementary school working with Inner-City Arts in downtown Los Angeles. Approximately 32 fifth graders from LAUSD elementary schools such as Frank del Olmo Elementary School, Sierra Park Elementary School and Norwood Elementary School, work twice-a-week with CalArts faculty and student instructors to learn animation techniques and produce an animated short film. This semester the instructors are working with students from El Sereno Elementary School. The students explore animation through making flipbooks and zoetropes, inventing characters and writing stories, recording voices and sounds, and creating cut-out puppet animation. The completed films are screened in festivals at Inner-City Arts, REDCAT, and other venues. All students receive DVDs of their work. This two-semester, twenty week-long writing program is a collaboration among the CalArts Community Arts Partnership (CAP), Wiliam S. Hart High School, the CalArts School of Critical Studies and the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations. The program is lead by CalArts School of Critical Studies faculty member Mady Schutzman and three teams of CalArts School of Critical Studies graduate students. The program involves a group of approximately fifty E.S.L. students from William S. Hart High School in an intensive creative writing workshop that will culminate with readings at CalArts and at William S. Hart High School on May 7, 2008, with the publication of a collection of the students’ writing. class dates feb 4 - may 5, 2008 times mondays & wednesdays 10:00am - noon held at Inner-City Arts 720 kohler street los angeles ca 90021 t: 213.627.9621 instructors calarts school of film/video faculty leo hobaica, calarts alumnus ruben esqueda, and calarts student instructors My Friend’s Place Creative Writing Program The CAP Creative Writing Program works with students individually and in groups to create works which express a variety of concerns ranging from individual, social, and political identity to the emotional dynamics of family and interpersonal relationships. Because students at My Friend’s Place are often at particular risk to homelessness and marginalization, their work addresses commonly accepted notions of background, present status, and of the future with uncommon urgency. Working with faculty and graduate instructors from the CalArts MFA Writing Program, students produce poetry, stories, essays, artwork, photography, and video in an expanded notion of the expressive limits of “writing.” The year-long, two semester workshops culminate in both the publication of an anthology of student work and a public reading at My Friend’s Place. class dates jan 15 - may 20, 2008 times wednesdays & fridays 12:30pm - 3:30pm instructors calarts school of critical studies faculty jon wagner and calarts mfa writing program students instructors andrea spofford, dante zunigawest, zane thimmesch-gill, and brittany goode held at My Friend’s Place 5850 hollywood blvd hollywood ca 90028 t: 323 908.0011 Share the World Program The CAP Share the World Program, a partnership with the City of Santa Clarita and the six local Santa Clarita School Districts, brings CalArts world music and dance ensembles to provide performances and workshops for students in elementary, middle and high schools throughout the Santa Clarita Valley. The ensembles available range from jazz, Latin jazz, Balinese Gamelan to North and South Indian music, and African music and dance among many other offerings. The program begins in October and continues through May. If you are associated with a public elementary, middle or high school in the Santa Clarita Valley, and would like to schedule a concert/workshop or receive further information about this program please call the CAP Public Programs Coordinator at 661.291.3037 class dates jan 16 - march 19, 2008 times wednesdays 10:30-11:30am and 1:00-2:00pm thursdays 11:20am-12:20pm instructors school of critical studies faculty member mady schutzman and calarts mfa student instructors dan baker, kate guthrie (group 1), stephanie martin, sara finnerty, kia parks (group 2) and sarah burghauser and jen hawe (group 3). held at William S. Hart High School 24825 newhall avenue newhall ca 91321 t: 661 259.7575 Assistant Principal maria lacy Teachers diane babko and katrina dolinsky CAP SUMMER ARTS PROGRAM: CAP Summer Arts Program July 7-July 24, 2008 Application deadline: June 2, 2008 CAP’s Summer Arts Program is a free three-week intensive arts program in July for teens entering grades 10 through 12 or having just graduated from high school. The program offers exciting and creative experimentation in the arts and offers workshops in Music, Visual Arts, Dance, Creative Writing, and Film/Video. Students choose to work in one of these five disciplines. Workshops are lead by outstanding faculty artists from the California Institute of the Arts along with CalArts student instructors. Students in the program build skills and deepen their understanding of their chosen disciplines and their own creative process. Along with working in their artistic fields, students will learn to create a professional portfolio and prepare materials for college applications. Moreover, they will learn about college applications and financial aid programs, attend a college fair, participate in several field trips to museums and live performances, and will be involved in daily presentations and workshops presented by visiting artists. This program takes place at Plaza de la Raza 3540 north mission road los angeles ca 90031 t: 323 223.2475 For further information about this program and the application process please contact the CAP Summer Arts Program Coordinator Carribean Fragoza at cfragoza@calarts.edu Watts Towers Arts Center Jazz and World Music Program The CAP Jazz and World Music Program with the Watts Towers Arts Center brings free performances by CalArts music and dance ensembles to high schools in the Watts, South Central Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley and East Los Angeles areas. The ensembles available range from jazz, Latin jazz, Balinese Gamelan, to North and South Indian music, and African music and dance, among many other offerings. Over two thousand young musicians take part in this program which includes master classes in specific instruments. The program begins in October and continues through May. If you are associated with a high school in Los Angeles County, and would like to schedule a concert/workshop or receive further information about this program please call the CAP Public Programs Coordinator at 661.291.3037 15 CalArts Administration { Steven D. Lavine President Nancy Uscher Provost Lynn Rosenfeld Vice President for Special Projects Arwen Duffy Vice President for Advancement Steve Anker Dean, School of Film/Video Erik Ehn Dean, School of Theater Stephan Koplowitz Dean, School of Dance Tom Lawson Dean, School of Art David Rosenboom Dean, School of Music Nancy Wood Dean, School of Critical Studies CalArts } California Institute of the Arts CAP } { California Institute of the Arts educates professional artists in a unique learning environment founded on the principles of artmaking excellence, experimentation, critical reflection and the diversity of voices. Throughout its history, CalArts has sought to advance the practice of art and promote its understanding in a broad social, cultural and historical context. CalArts offers students the knowledge and expertise of leading professional artists and scholars and a full complement of artmaking tools. In return, it asks for the highest artistic and academic achievement. Reflecting its longstanding commitment to new forms and expressions in art, CalArts invites creative risk-taking and urges active collaboration and exchange among artists, artistic disciplines and cultural traditions. CalArts Community Arts Partnership (CAP) Community Arts Partnership The CalArts Community Arts Partnership (CAP), a program of the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), links the Institute and the diverse communities of Los Angeles County through free, after-school and school-based arts programs for youth. CAP provides the youth in these communities challenging learning environments for artistic experimentation and creates access to higher education. Through these CalArts faculty-mentored programs, CAP provides CalArts students the opportunity to teach, to refine their artistic abilities and to redefine the role of artists, arts education, and the arts in society. CAP, now in its eighteenth year, is a partnership between CalArts and 41 public high schools and community-based arts and youth organizations. CAP offers in-depth arts training programs free-of-charge for high school students in chamber music, jazz and world music, printmaking, photography, video, drawing, graphic design, dance, digital media, theater, puppetry, animation, and writing in 53 neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles County. Glenna Avila Director Evelyn Serrano Assistant Director of Programs Wendy Vazquez Assistant Director of Operations Drew Jorgensen Public Programs Coordinator and Saturday Music Program Coordinator Carribean Fragoza Summer Arts Program Coordinator Betty Lee ArtsCOOL Program Coordinator Jan Smail Administrative Assistant California Institute of the Arts BOARD OF TRUSTEES Joan Abrahamson Aileen Adams William H. Ahmanson Austin M. Beutner Chairman David A. Bossert Jacqueline Brandwynne Manuel O. Castells Edwin E. Catmull Don Cheadle V. Shannon Clyne Joseph M. Cohen Richard W. Cook Timothy P. Corrigan Robert J. Denison Roy E. Disney Tim Disney Janet Dreisen Robert B. Egelston Michael D. Eisner David I. Fisher Harriett F. Gold Leo F. Hobaica Jr. Faculty Trustee Charmaine Jefferson Peter Kraus Ex-Officio/Chairman, Board of Overseers Steven D. Lavine President and Ex-Officio Thomas L. Lee James B. Lovelace Michelle Lund James McCoy Staff Trustee Peter Norton Anthony N. Pritzker Lawrence J. Ramer Araceli Ruano David L. Schiff Richard C. Seaver Joe Smith Jade Thacker Student Trustee Roger Wacker Elliot D. Webb Luanne C. Wells Kenneth P. Wong California Institute of the Arts Community Arts Partnership FACULTY ARTISTS (since 1990) ARROYO SECO JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL SANTA CLARITA VALLEY YOUTH ORCHESTRA SANTA CLARITA VALLEY BOYS & GIRLS CLUB WILLIAM S. HART HIGH SCHOOL CALARTS COMMUNITY ARTS PARTNERSHIP 5 SANTA CLARITA 210 SAN FERNANDO GARDENS COMMUNITY SERVICE CENTER LEWIS HIGH SCHOOL WOODEN HIGH SCHOOL EINSTEIN HIGH SCHOOL INDEPENDENCE HIGH SCHOOL LEONIS HIGH SCHOOL THOREAU HIGH SCHOOL EARHART HIGH SCHOOL SAN FERNANDO 170 LONDON HIGH SCHOOL 101 2 ROGERS HIGH SCHOOL 134 LOS ANGELES CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIES FRANKLIN HIGH SCHOOL CENTER FOR THE ARTS EAGLE ROCK ART-IN-THE-PARK RAMONA HIGH SCHOOL LOS 101 ANGELES WHITMAN HIGH SCHOOL TEMESCAL CANYON HIGH SCHOOL MY FRIEND'S PLACE WILLIAM REAGH LOS ANGELES PHOTOGRAPHY CENTER INNER-CITY ARTS SANTA MONICA 10 405 GERTZ-RESSLER HIGH SCHOOL COLLEGE-READY ACADEMY PHOENIX HIGH SCHOOL PASADENA FRIDA KAHLO HIGH SCHOOL PLAZA DE LA RAZA SELF-HELP GRAPHICS & ART CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL MONTEREY HIGH SCHOOL 10 SAN ANTONIO HIGH SCHOOL HOPE HIGH SCHOOL DEL REY HIGH SCHOOL 105 WATTS TOWERS ARTS CENTER EAGLE TREE HIGH SCHOOL SAN PEDRO { at home in union station Megan Broughton 710 605 110 } BANNING'S LANDING COMMUNITY CENTER COLLABORATING PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS Arroyo Seco Junior High School rhondi durand Principal juliet fine Classroom Teacher City of Santa Clarita, Arts and Events Department donna avila Events Program Coordinator 27171 north vista delgado drive valencia ca 91354 tel 661.296.0991 fax 661.296.3436 www.hartdistrict.org/aseco 23920 valencia blvd ste 120 santa clarita ca 91355 tel 661.286.4145 fax 661.255.1996 www.santa-clarita.com/arts Art-in-the-Park berta sosa Director Franklin High School luis lopez Principal arroyo seco park 5568 via marisol los angeles ca 90042 tel 323.259.0861 fax 323.369.2476 www.artinthepark.us 820 north avenue 54 los angeles ca 90042 tel 323.550.2000 http://www.franklinhs.org Banning’s Landing Community Center leslie thomas Director lisette garibay Administrative Assistant 100 e. water street wilmington ca 90744 tel 310.522.2015 fax 310.522.2003 cadharborarts@earthlink.net www.wilmington-chamber.com/banlndct.htm California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) steven lavine President 24700 mcbean parkway santa clarita ca 91355 tel 661.222.2708 fax 661.222.2726 www.calarts.edu Center for the Arts Eagle Rock julia salazar Director 2225 colorado blvd eagle rock ca 90041 tel 323.226.1617 fax 323.226.0949 www.centerartseaglerock.org Gertz-Ressler High School / The Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools howard lappin Principal My Friend’s Place shawn ingram Executive Director heather carmichael Clinical Director camilla brannstrom Special Projects Self-Help Graphics & Art 3802 cesar chavez ave la ca 90063-1896 tel 323.881.6444 fax 323.881.6447 www.selfhelpgraphics.com 5850 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood CA 90028 tel 323.908.0011 fax 323.468.1243 www.myfriendsplace.org Visual Communications jeff liu Interim Executive Director Plaza de la Raza rose marie cano Executive Director maria jimenez-torres Education Coordinator 120 judge john aiso street basement level la ca 90012 tel 213.680.4462 fax 213.687.4848 www.vconline.org 3540 n. mission road la ca 90031 tel 323.223.2475 fax 323.223.1804 www.plazadelaraza.org Watts Towers Arts Center rosie lee hooks Director rogelio acevedo Education Coordinator 2023 s. union avenue losangeles 90007-1326 tel 213.745.8141 fax 213.745.8142 www.laalliance.org San Fernando Gardens Community Service Center suzell vargas Director consuelo telfair Community Case Manager Inner-City Arts cynthia harnisch Executive Director bob bates Artistic Director beth tishler Education Director 10896 lehigh ave pacoima ca 91331 tel 818.834.9266 fax 818.896.3783 William S. Hart High School dr. colvin nielsen Principal Santa Clarita Valley Boys and Girls Club jim ventress Executive Director 24825 newhall avenue newhall ca 91321 tel 661.259.7575 fax 661.254.6436 www.hartdistrict.org/hart/ 720 kohler street los angeles ca 90021 tel 213.627.9621 fax 213.627.6469 www.inner-cityarts.org 24909 newhall avenue newhall ca 91321 tel 661.254.2582 fax 661.254.3278 www.scvboysandgirlclub.org Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies (LACPS) john bache President & Acting Executive Director Santa Clarita Valley Youth Orchestra at College of the Canyons 3034 angus street la ca 90039 tel 323.669.1897 www.cap.calarts.edu/partners.html Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) 333 south beaudry avenue los angeles ca 90017 tel 213.241.1000 fax 213.241.8442 www.lausd.k12.ca.us robert lawson Music Director paul sherman Associate Conductor and Adjunct Faculty 24655 rockwell canyon road santa clarita ca 91355 tel 661.259.7800 x 3254 fax 661.259.8302 www.scvyo.org 1727 e. 107th street la ca 90002 tel 323.847.4646 fax 323.564.7030 www.trywatts.com/art_center.htm William Reagh Los Angeles Photography Center ruben amavizca Director 2332 w. fourth street la ca 90057 tel 213.382.8133 Luis Alfaro Susan Allen Steve Anker Kary Arimoto-Mercer Karen Atkinson Larry Attaway John Bache Eric Barber Lee Barnette Laurel Beckman Fran Bennett John Bergamo Hartmut Bitomsky Lawrence Blake Steve Brown Michael Bryant Nancy Buchanan Ben Caldwell Theresa Chavez Marissa Chibas Bob Clendenen Gay Crusius-Hoag Robert Dansby Barbara June Dodge Scott Duncan Alan Eder Erik Ehn Dave Emerson Martha Ferrara Julie Feves Andy Freeman Janie Geiser Randy Gloss Patricia Mabee Goldstein Vinny Golia Charlie Haden Chad Hamill Albert “Tootie” Heath Dick Hebdige Leo Hobaica Darcy Huebler David Johnson Douglas Kearney Dennis Keeley Martin Kersels Chandra Khan Garland Kirkpatrick Norman Klein Stephan Koplowitz Gordon Kurowski Alfred Ladzekpo Kobla Ladzekpo Beatrice Lawluvi Cristyne Lawson Tom Lawson Betty Lee Ferdinand Lewis Joe Lewis Paul Livingston John Mahoney Mark Menzies Jennifer Miller Michael Mitchell Roscoe Mitchell Peter Miyamoto Maggie Nelson James Newton Paul Novros Darek Oles Cynthia Overman Christine Panushka Francesca Penzani Chris Peters Bryan Pezzone Astra Price Vicki Ray David Roitstein Carlos Rosas David Rosenboom Niki Rousso-Schindler Lisa Schoenberg Mady Schutzman Gary Schwartz Aaron Serfaty Susan Simpson Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith Michael Smith Susan Solt Poovalur Srinivasan Shelley Stepp May Sun Paul Supkoff Miroslav Tadic Tomas Tamayo Toby Tannenbaum Rajeev Taranath Frank Terry Trang Kim Tran Marvin Tunney Naomi Uman Allan Vogel Darrell Walters Jon Wagner Djoko Walujo A. C. Weary I Nyoman Wenten Nanik Wenten Nancy Wood Denise Woods Laurie Woolery Michael Worthington Seung-Hyun Yoo California Institute of the Arts Community Arts Partnership VISITING ARTISTS (since 1990) Kim Abeles Geri Allen Luis Alfaro Gloria Alvarez Alex Alferov Michael Amescua Rudolfo Anaya Tomie Arie Hector Armienta Chris Armstrong David Avalos Glenna Avila Judy Baca Lita Barrie Lelalois Beard Geetha Bennett Norma Bowles Ed Bland Chaz Bojorquez Anne Bray Peter Brosius Sandip Burman Barbara Carrasco Srikanth Chary Anna Chavez Denise Chavez Elaine Chen Carl Cheng Martha Chono-Helsey Olivia Chumacero Chris Cichoki Joyce Clarke Wendy Clarke Eva Cockcroft Reggie Coleman Robbie Conal Kiko Cornejo, Jr. Jose Cruz Gonzalez Vanessa Cruz Cubanismo Jessica Cusick Danny De La Paz Miguel Delgado Nancy De Los Santos Simeon Den Juan Devis Ulises Diaz Prince Diabaté Maya Emsden Leslie Ernst Ruben Esqueda Eddie Felix Cecil Fergerson Koina Freeman Harry Gamboa Amparo Garcia Margaret Garcia Willie Garcia Cheri Gaulke Joel Glassman Barbara Goldstein Pat Gomez Gabriel Gonzalez Patricia Gonzalez Christina Gorocica Wesley Groves Suzanna Guzman Diane Hall Ayana Hampton Patrick Hebert David Henderson Ingrid Hernandez Miyo Hernandez Karin Higa Cesar Holguin Peter Howard Sulley Imoro Flora Ito Ulysses Jenkins Maria Jimenez-Torres Gregg Johnson Jeffrey Kahane Kim Kanatani Brooke Keesling Michael Kenna Ravi Kiran Eliam Kraiem Cyril Kuhn Yeko Ladzekpo-Cole Jon LaPointe Julie Lazar Betty Lee Alma Lopez Juanita Lopez Luciano Perna Los Pochos Toni Love Eve Luckring Gilbert Lujan Otoño Lujan Ming-Yuen Ma Yo Yo Ma John Malpede Daniel Martinez Tania Martinez-Lemke Lewis Mauk Anthony McCann Adrian Mejia Willie Middlebrook Yong Soon Min Michael Miner K. Silem Mohammed David Monkawa Allesandra Montezuma Joe Morton Donna Mungen Merilene Murphy Eileen Myles Nobuho Nagasawa Alan Nakagawa Katherine Ng Al Nodal Catherine Opie Rosalie Ortega Ruben Ortiz-Torres Barbara Osborn John Outterbridge Janet Owens Monica Palacios Mike Plante Rose Portillo Paola Prato Quetzal Xavier Quijas Marcos Ramirez ERRE Leda Ramos Irma “Cui Cui Rangel Yvonne Regalado Peter Reiss Luis Reyes Jolene Rickard Aleida Rodriguez Marcos Rosales Leanna Rosas Ron Ruiz Aida Salazar Ernesto Salcedo Esa-Pekka Salonen Ray Sandoval Rodney Sappington Larry Shapiro Herbert Siguenza Tammy Singer Alex Slade Rachel Slowinski Bernardo Solano Arjuna Soriano Joe Smoke Larry Stein May Sun Roderick Sykes Tomas Tamayo Rea Tajiri Joel Tan Janice Tipton Adan Valdez Patssi Valdez Carol Wells Glen Williams, Jr. Pat Ward Williams Havana Willis Al Winn Richard Wyatt David Yamamoto Kim Yasuda Michael Zinzun Community Arts Partnership CAP COUNCIL Glenna Avila Director & ex officio George Nicholas Boone Richard Burrows Susan Disney Lord Laura Donnelley Janet Dreisen The Community Arts Partnership is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the City of Los Angeles Alpert Foundation, JL Foundation, B.C. McCabe Foundation, Getty Grant Program, Edison International, Department of Cultural Affairs, the Hearst Foundation, Inc., the James Irvine Foundation, Susan Disney Lord, Roth Family Foundation, Good Works Foundation, and the Talented Students in the Arts Initiative, Jamie Tisch, Janet Dreisen, Hilton Hotels Corporation, The Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation, a collaboration of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Surdna Foundation. Walter E.D. Miller, California Arts Council, the City of Santa Clarita, the Annenberg Foundation, the Herb Peggy Funkhouser Chair John Hughes Judy Johnson Steven Lavine President & ex officio James Lovelace Janice Pober Rona Sebastian Evelyn Serrano Assistant Director of Programs and ex officio Jamie Tisch Nancy Uscher Provost & ex officio Wendy Vazquez Assistant Director of Operations & ex officio Simbi Kali Williams