Tags archives: art education

  • Art for Progress is pleased to announce The Carlos Reid Gallery will be pledging 3% of gallery sales to Art for Progress for the next two years. The Carlos Reid Gallery is quickly becoming the ultimate destination for original, international, contemporary and modern art online. The gallery is based in the United States and is dedicated to representing emerging and established international contemporary artists. Unlike physical galleries, we have over 100 million potential online clients worldwide and are able to sell in over 150 countries. Clients include private, corporate collectors, galleries, and museums worldwide. Please visit The Carlos Reid Gallery often to view our ever-evolving collection of original contemporary and modern art. After a visit to The Carlos Reid Gallery, you will soon discover a unique array of styles and mediums, at prices designed to meet the needs of any collector. "The Carlos Reid Gallery's mission is to provide the highest quality art by the most talented new, emerging, and established artists- worldwide. To engage a wide array of audiences, against the backdrop of an online-based platform that elevates artists and their work." The Carlos Reid Gallery  www.thecarlosreidgallery.com
  • This summer, thanks to a grant from the Matisse Foundation, I had the great pleasure of teaching the music portion of the Art for Progress Summer Arts & Music Program for high school students and young adults interested in pursuing creative careers. Consisting of series of four workshops held on Sunday mornings during July and August at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center, the program was designed to explore the many real-world considerations inherent to careers in the arts and music. The focus was to look at some of the dynamics at play in the music and art worlds, and to provide support in the development of specific skills in the various media. Each week, a professional working in the arts was invited as a guest speaker and to host a short discussion. The speakers were happy to answer questions and were very informative and animated as they enlightened the group about the day-to-day life of a working artist. Everyone seemed to have a great time and to get a better sense of how to approach their work professionally going forward. On a personal note…I had the fantastic opportunity to study visual art in Paris while in college, and later jazz theory and improvisation, so it was auspicious to me to be able to work with the foundation representing French painter Henri Matisse, a personal favorite and early influence. Matisse was known to love American jazz music, and that added to my special sense of personal investment in this project. We at AFP are[...]
  • Humanities Preparatory Academy, our flagship music education program, suffered a budget cut of $130,000 this year.  As a result, they have to eliminate half of the music classes AFP has been providing for the past 6 years. The school is located in Chelsea, but it’s mostly attended by students from under-served communities in Harlem and the Lower East Side. AFP’s music program is the only music program at the school. With each year, there are more students that want to take music classes than we can accommodate. As we've seen time and again, music and art classes are the first to go when cuts like this happen. Our goal is to raise $10,000 to supplement the budget and fund the program for the upcoming school year. If we can raise the necessary funds, we can continue to serve as many kids as possible and maintain the vital music and arts presence that has become a signature of the school's culture. Our mission is to provide creative arts programs for all New York City public school students. Every child should have the opportunity to learn creative skills and problem solving. Please make a donation right now to help us fulfill our mission. We have some exciting gifts that we're offering to exceptional contributors as an added incentive, including artwork and private music performances and lessons. Thank you in advance for your help! Please watch this short video from AFP's Director, Frank Jackson and Educator, Barry Komitor. Take a look at the suggested donation le[...]
  • So many exciting things have been going on in the world of Art for Progress’ Arts and Music Education Program. We have been helping young people throughout the city to cultivate their artistic expression and proudly watching that effort bear fruit. Our continuing school and after school programs provide opportunities for students to learn skills and form friendships and alliances while our community efforts give those students and others real life experience through performing, showing work, and recording music. We are honored to have received two grants this spring, as well, which will help our ongoing mission to make sure arts stay in public schools despite consistent budget cuts. This has been a landmark year for Art for Progress’ Arts and Music Education Programs. Our music programs at Humanities Preparatory Academy, The James Baldwin School, and Hudson High School for Learning Technologies have been developing astonishing talent; and our visual arts programs at Forsyth Satellite Academy and Essex Street Academy continue to expose students to new perspectives on fine arts and design. We’re especially proud of the work we’ve done developing the bands in the AFP Young Adult Music Enrichment and Recording Program. Statik Vision is now a staple on the NYC rmusic scene, and their album release was featured in a photo essay in the New York Times’ Lens section showcasing the Bronx punk art scene. Big Sweater and Bad Faces got to play alongside musical heavyweights Nels[...]
  • In the fall of 2012, Nasrene Haj and Mila Pinigin formed the Creators Collective. At the time Haj and Pinigin, who had recently graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, were interested in creating a collaborative space in which other artistic individuals could come together to network, generate discussion and develop projects and events which challenged the status quo. In the two years since the Creators Collective was founded, Jeremie Gluckman joined the organization as Research Director while Haj has remained at the helm guiding the Creators Collective forward, always seeking out new and innovative ways to engage the arts on a micro and macro scale. I spoke with Haj who is the Director and Co-Founder of the Creators Collective, about what it is like being a working artist in Brooklyn today, what challenges she faced starting an organization, and what changes she has seen in the Brooklyn arts community having grown up here Anni Irish: How was the Creators Collective formed? And what was your intent for this organization? Nasrene Haj: I founded The Creators Collective with one of my best friends from college, Mila Pinigin. One evening, while studying abroad in Italy our junior year, we were having dinner and started throwing around ideas for projects we’d like to work on together. We thought about how amazing it would be to create a small collective in Brooklyn that would engage these various projects with other friends and community members. A few months after gradu[...]
  • Art for Progress arts education programs have been doing great work this winter, with visual arts programs in place at Landmark High School and Quest 2 Learn NY and music programs at Quest, Humanities Prep, Hudson High School for Learning Technologies, and, most recently, at James Baldwin High School, all in Chelsea. The Humanities music program, led by teaching artist and musician Barry Komitor, has added an after school student/faculty jam on Tuesday afternoons to two regular classes per day, enabling students to apply the knowledge and skills they develop during school music classes. In a dynamic group environment, they learn an entirely different set of skills and considerations. The group has learned “Zombie” by The Cranberries, and “Twist and Shout”, among other songs, and has regular blues and freestyle jams. Komitor also teaches drums after school at Quest 2 Learn on Mondays, and has begun offering guitar and piano lessons after school three days a week, subsidized by grant monies thanks to the Sansom Foundation.  These lessons are to serve students from former AFP programs in the Bronx and Brooklyn, which lost support or funding, including: Christopher Columbus High School Campus in the Bronx (which comprises Bronxdale High School and Pelham Prep as well as the Collegiate Institute for Math and Science [CIMS], all providing students that are participating) and The Academy for Conservation and the Environment in Canarsie, Brooklyn. Lessons are available one of the da[...]
  • Art for Progress hosted a student recording project incorporating participants from the 2011-12 Bronxdale High School after school music program, which was open to students from all of the Schools housed in the Christopher Columbus High School campus. The students had written and prepared a song in the weeks before the recording dates, and on August 28th, 29th, and Sept 1, met teaching artist Barry Komitor at Zen Archer Studio in Chinatown. Bassist Jason McFarlane and Guitarist Raymond Moreta were joined by guitarist Randy Rivas, Drummer Jacob Roberts, and vocalists Celeste Pasian and Queen Manson. The group learned about the process of setting up microphones to record all of the instruments, as well as the process of recording a live band. The group learned firsthand about the level of intensity involved in committing work to a permanent medium. Most importantly, the project focused on the cooperation involved in working as a group with a common goal, including taking initiative and making compromises, and overcoming doubts and fears. The project was a great success and the students each received a CD of a mixed recording of the song to take home and enjoy.
  • Another exciting school year has ended and AFP's impact and our programs continue to grow. The Sansom Foundation recently awarded Art for Progress a $20,000 grant which was a thirty percent increase over last year's grant! We are ecstatic that the foundation has increased their support for the program.  Though the funds are very important we believe the vote of confidence from the Sansom Foundation is even more important as we focus on applying for more funds to expand our important work in the NYC Public Schools. A special thank you goes out to Barry Komitor who has been instrumental in the development of the program in many ways. His passion and dedication to the organization and the students is unwavering.  If we just had a few more Barry Komitors, we can do so much more! In the following video, Barry and some of our students at Bronxdale High School offer some insight into AFP's Music Program. Thanks to our intern Fred Hua for doing such a great job working on this video. http://youtu.be/8I7Drhip1JM