Tags archives: Frank Jackson

  • For over ten years, Art for Progress (AFP) has been providing vital, exciting music & art programs for students in New York City public schools. Why we need your help: * Public arts funding in the U.S. is suffering more than ever in the current political climate. * Many public schools in NYC do not have the funds to hire full time art teachers. AFP provides financial support to schools with budget shortfalls. * AFP teaching artists provide a safe place within the school environment for kids to learn who they want to be, and the results are astonishing! * AFP's programs are customized to achieve the goals of of each partner school, while focusing on the lives and interests of the students . * Students need to explore their creativity. Art for Progress is able to provide these programs through private grants; but a grant that has been sustaining AFP's programs was cut in half this year, and we're asking for your help to make up the difference. AFP currently works with seven schools across the city with plans to expand into new schools next semester, but without your help we may not have the funding to accommodate these programs. Please help us today with a donation and help keep the arts in New York City’s public schools.
  • It was a cold Saturday afternoon, but I was motivated to trek over to Chelsea to check out the Kitchen Girls & Toy Boys show at Rush Arts Gallery.  Artists Sindy Butz and Sol Kjok are participating artists in the show and have both worked with AFP on various projects. It didn't take long for me to identify Sol's very large piece, "Strings Attached" as I walked into the gallery.  Her figurative work bursts off the canvas with great detail and her use of color brings out the emotion in her characters.  In this piece the characters are strung together and appear to be grasping and climbing over each other while still maintaining a certain co-dependence. I was impressed with the overall quality and diversity of the work in the show.  The work of Reinhold Gottwald caught my attention. His colorful, small, abstract pieces on wood are hung/arranged as if they are a group of  planets sharing the same solar system. I found Markus Fiedler's beeswax sneakers quite intriguing and an interesting piece(s) to be included in the show. I was impressed with the incredible detail he was able to achieve using beeswax. I noticed Sindy crouched down on the floor, but I didn't realize that her performance had already begun. What is she up to this time? Sindy's not afraid to take on the not so obvious social issues of the day. Her thought provoking work continues to evolve and this performance would not disappoint.  The message on the floor read, "The West Tastes like Gold." As Sind[...]
  • Art for Progress (AFP) is pleased to announce a group exhibition of new works by artists from New York City, Los Angeles, Spain and Israel. The show entitled “Déjà vu” will run from October 30th to November 12th, 2014 at NOoSPHERE Arts in New York City, and the opening reception will take place on October 30th from 6 to 10 PM. The exhibition will include a variety of mediums, from painting to sculpture, which tackle the theme of déjà vu. The term can be described as “a feeling of having already experienced the present situation” or “a tedious familiarity.”It first appeared in a 1928 text entitled a Text for Psychology. Since then, the topic of déjà vu has been addressed from the big screen to Sci-Fi novels. It is a concept and sensation that has captivated audiences for generations and in this exhibit AFP hopes to push the boundaries of this. For this show, the concept of déjà vu has been explored from several vantage points, from ideas of storytelling to an affective feeling. This exhibition is seeking to both comment on this topic and try to rethink the way in which it has been socioculturally situated. Déjà vu has come to occupy a very specific place within popular culture and this exhibition aims to build on that while also carving out new meaning for it. Fourteen artists will be featured in the show: Rocco Alberico, Ted Barr, Bill Claps, Lance Dehne, Tony DiBella, Essam, gilf!, Diane LaRaja, Lichiban, Sona Mirzaei, Carol Nussbaum, Juan Manuel Pajares, Jeanne Wilkinson[...]