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The Power Of The Simplest Of Actions

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This weekend, I attended Art 180, Performing Statistics, and RISE for Youth’s joint event, the Juvenile Justice Parade. It was organized by black and brown youth, all of whom have faced personal discrimination and many of whom have been personally sent through the school-to-prison-pipeline.

Chants spanned from “Fund education, not incarceration, invest in us, invest in us,” to as simple as, “Prisons don’t work!” As we marched, we each were holding at least one piece of artwork from formerly incarcerated youth, organized by Art 180, and we took their art to the streets with a moving march, literally and figuratively.

We started at a community center and ended at a park, marching through backstreets and backstreets only. I felt weird about being guided by the police car and chanting these things in the first person, but I had to set my awkwardness aside to focus on the bigger picture– the mobilization and the movement.

At the beginning and end we heard speeches (one by my friend Stephanie), songs, raps, poetry, and freestyle dances, all of which went to support a bigger cause. In the park there was an open mic after all of the scheduled speakers had gone, and I shared my poem, “Do Nothing,” with a feeling of hope.

It was absolutely essential that people would show up at this event, to participate, to engage, to learn. Despite my obvious suburban-whiteness, I was one of those people, and it mattered. Everyone who came made a difference at the event in one way or another.

Based on the title of this post, you may think my point will be that showing up is all you have to do, or that it is the simplest of actions, but neither are correct. To truly make a difference, you not only have to show up, you have to show up again, and again, and again, for whatever cause matters to you.

This seems like a lot, but it really isn’t. The simplest of actions, I will argue, is even simpler than attending an event. What can you do that will help you show up, get involved, and most importantly, spread your voice? Talking, listening, discussing. Its as simple as that. No matter who you are or what you do, you cannot change the world alone. But with a group, you can.

It recently came to my attention that we all, introverts and extroverts alike, need groups to thrive in activism, even if they’re just three other people. So, a whole year ago, I made an after-school club called TCLU (or the ACLU of Tuckahoe Middle School) and went through the bi-weekly craziness for a year (kudos to Ms McNew and Hayes). In the summer, it continued as the Teen Advocacy Group of Richmond, TAGRVA. It was a rocky rollercoaster, and not much of one at that, but eventually, through simply showing up again and again, it stabilized.

We have five people in total, and it doesn’t seem like much, but it is. My point is anyone can go anywhere if they continue to show up for and with other people. “Anyone” in that sentence is the word I had forgotten about for so long, but then we had an idea.

We decided we could expand TAG, so anyone could make their own. All they’d need is people, a time-frame, and a venue. Ours are: friends who live nearby, Wednesday evenings, and my house. It’s that simple, yet that important, to talk to other people with other backgrounds and ideas. If you are a teenager or know one who may be interested in forming a group, you can learn more at www.tagrva.com.

My point here is that even something as simple as frequently brainstorming actions with friends, or attending an event, really matters — your first step is to show up.

What I Think I See: Art 180 Teens Explore Identity and Mental Health

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Using poetry, drawing, and video work, Richmond teens in Art 180’s Atlas program delved into mental health care, wellness, and identity in their latest exhibit, “What I Think I See,” which opened earlier this month.

Featuring blind contour and gesture artwork created using observational drawing techniques, alongside poetry and video of step show performance art, the program aims to allow teens to express how they feel or struggles they are going through, serving as a creative outlet for them. 

The piece is a culmination of Art 180’s winter program with inspirations from the various classes they offer.

“There’s one class called the self-care step dance class where they talk about self-care and learn the art of step dancing,” Atlas Program Manager Michael Zetlan said. “And then there’s a poetry and painting class, then a drawing class.”

Zetlan said in the poetry and painting class, the kids wrote self-reflective poems about themselves and transcribed it into drawings in their class, whereas in the self-care step dance class, they explored  healthy living and what healthcare looks like between medication, being kind to yourself, and wellness, and then turned it into a video with the help of Jasmine Coles.

Zetlan said he hopes the kids build confidence through the program, and believes these teens, through the art, are getting to know their true selves.  

“We did have one teen who used the forum to come out to their parents, which was really moving for me,” he said. “They knew that he is gay, but they didn’t know he was trans,” he said. 

The poetry, according to Zetlan, is the most moving because there is so much passion revealed through the writing prompts. Whether it’s going to be on display for people or not, he said it’s crucial for these students to get their feelings out and be heard.  

“I can feel the kids getting more connected to themselves when I look at and read their poetry,” he said. “Especially when you see some of the separate fields and you think, oh, he’s not even paying attention, then you read the poem and realize they’re really paying attention. “That is touching to us as an organization and to me as a person.”

“What I Think I See” will be on display at ART 180, located at 114 W. Marshall St., through June 25.

 

 

VCU Sculpture Department, ICA, & Art 180 Collaborate to Create ‘Future Studio’ Program for Local Teens

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For the past 10 weeks, a group of Richmond high schoolers spent their Saturdays in VCU’s Sculpture Department doing everything from woodworking to welding. They are the first generation of Future Studio, a free semester-long program aimed at giving Richmond teens hands-on experience creating art with the department.

Future Studio is a partnership between VCU’s Department of Sculpture + Extended Media, VCU’s Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) and Art 180, a Richmond based non-profit that provides art-related programs to young people living in challenging circumstances. The semester culminated in an art exhibition at Art 180’s gallery, a showcase made exclusively of student work.

Matt King, Chair of the VCU Sculpture Department, has been dreaming of this project for years. After receiving a grant from the VCU Division of Community Engagement, along with additional funding from the VCUart’s Dean’s Office, the project became a reality.

“This was conceived of as a way to reach out into the community and give back, to open our doors up to young artists who otherwise might not have a chance to work with the types of tools and materials we have here in the sculpture department,” King said.  

Some art programs in area high schools do not have many opportunities to experiment with sculpture, let alone resources as high-grade as the VCU facilities.

“Most high schools don’t offer any kind of strong program in three-dimensional art making, and this is true across the country,” King said. “Shop classes don’t exist so much in schools anymore, art classes rarely offer anything other than a perfunctory lesson on making something three-dimensional.”

Meanwhile, VCU has the number one ranked sculpture program in the country, and facilities that include a highly functioning woodshop, metal fabrication shop and a host of digital equipment.

The program is not limited exclusively to Richmond Public School students, instead, the applications are open to high school students from anywhere in the Richmond community. Ultimately, Future Studio accepted 15 students from 13 different high schools for this semester.

“It becomes this kind of melting pot for the city, for teens,” King said. “You have a student from St. Catherine’s working with a student from Meadowbrook and TJ. Having those students working together encourages a kind of dialogue that otherwise we wouldn’t be able to have.”

The Future Studio students do not require any prior experience, just a willingness to learn.

“We weren’t looking for students who had already studied sculpture or who had building skills or experience, we were really looking to hear their story, to find out who they were, with the idea that once they got here we would be starting from the ground up and they would learn together,” King said.

The students were given instruction on workshop safety and the intricacies of using hulking, intimidating equipment from the moving blades of a band saw to a plasma cutting torch. They watched demos in the wood shop with Leigh Cole, VCU instructor and shop technician, and were shown bending steel and welding by Abigail Lucien, adjunct VCU faculty, and metal tech.

Ian Gerson, a second-year MFA student in the VCU Sculpture Department, was the graduate TA for the program and spent his Saturdays these last few weeks with the students in the workshop.

“The kids got really excited about welding,” Gerson said. “Pretty much everybody’s project included some of the steel rod. They were just like lined up to weld, they were so hyped on that.”  

Without access to these resources and equipment at their high schools, its an exciting first-time opportunity for a lot of the students.

“There’s something exciting about the first time you build something that is stronger than you are,” King said.

But the program eclipses simply learning about tools and materials and physically making objects. The students participated in activities that helped to develop their sense of creative self.

“It goes much beyond building things. It really is a program that’s designed to inspire them to try to understand themselves and what’s important to them as young artists,” King said.

The head classroom instructor of the program and assistant professor in the VCU Sculpture + Extended Media department, Guadalupe Maravilla, brought in a variety of performance artists and undergraduate VCUarts students to teach activities to the high schoolers.

Gerson said these creative interludes were some of the most fun aspects of the program. One undergrad mentor entered the room on a skateboard. He left that way too, but not before leading the students in a raucous performance of a vocal symphony, where he played the conductor.

Mike Zetlan is the program manager for Atlas teen programs at Art 180, as well as the gallery manager. He calls the program a rousing success. “Trying to get that many kids to consistently show up on a Saturday is pretty hard,” he said.

Zetlan helped with the recruitment process, as well as eventually housing the exhibit in the Art 180 gallery space,  and said he was shocked at the turnout: 56 applicants for the 15 spot program.

He said that one of the most important aspects of the aptly named Future Studio is the way it looks to the future for its high school participants. It gave them a taste of the college experience, a chance to experience a renowned arts program and campus life. After the program, several of the eligible high schoolers applied to the VCU Arts program for the next year.  

The Future Studio art exhibition opened at RVA’s First Fridays last week, where the students showed up with family and friends despite the weekend’s ice and snow.  

“Even the staff has been really overwhelmed by how good this show is,” Zetlan said.  “I’ve gotten more feedback on the show than I have in a while…it feels a little bit more like a traditional gallery.”

King said that the program’s biggest criticism is that the students wished it would last longer. In fact, next semester the Saturday sessions have been increased from four hours to five. Applications for the spring semester of Future Studio are open now and will be closing on Jan. 18. The program is open to current sophomore, junior, and senior high school students. 

A closing reception for the exhibit is set for Jan. 26 from 6-8 p.m. at the Art 180 gallery.

Top Photo Credit: VCU Sculpture & Extended Media

Photo Essay: Art 180 & Performing Statistics March in 3rd Annual Juvenile Justice Parade

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Over the weekend, local organizations Rise for Youth and Performing Statistics joined Art 180 to march in the 3rd Annual Juvenile Justice Parade. With the rallying point starting on Marshall Street across from the General District Court, over 100 participants gathered in support of those impacted by the school-to-prison pipeline. A few powerful community activists, as well as few formerly incarcerated teens, spoke to the masses before the parade commenced. Parade participants included artists, community and faith leaders, teens formerly incarcerated and not, as well as local citizens. Making its way from the heart of downtown, the parade hopped on Broad Street and made its way to Belvidere before wrapping up in Abner Clay Park. The lively and powerful event and the highlight of November’s First Fridays.

Check out some of the best photos from the parade below: 

*Photos by Malik Hall 

 

ART 180 Gives Public a Glimpse Inside the Lives of Incarcerated Youth with Virtual Reality Exhibit

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How would you feel being confined to a tiny, dark, and isolated jail cell?

Atlas, ART 180’s center for teens, intends to give you a glimpse into what that experience is like with their latest exhibit and installation, “My Reality”, which opened last Friday.

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Created by teens in the program, “My Reality” is an immersive virtual reality experience which places attendees in the shoes of incarcerated youth to hear their stories, see their artwork, and share in their experiences with the juvenile justice system.

The minute you put on the virtual reality headset, you are immediately sent to corridors of the lifelike looking digital cell. A prison cell slightly larger than a walk-in closet consisting of; a bed, a toilet, and a locked door. The stay mimicked the claustrophobia one would experience in a cell and I spent the entirety of the session hoping the door would open – which it didn’t.

Your entire three- minute stay – which felt much longer, to be honest – you are enclosed in the room and hear the narration of the teens who were incarcerated by the Richmond juvenile justice system. Each teen would tell their story and I couldn’t help but be moved by their stories. One kid, in particular, has been locked away for 7 months for a mistake without any trial.

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Photo by Craig Zirpolo

The goal of the exhibit is not necessarily to solve juvenile delinquency and youth incarceration overnight, but it is just to get the viewers to think about what they saw, and what they felt.

It does intend to lead viewers to consider lending a helping hand, or even just change their perspective the next time they run into a teenager that has been condemned by society because of the color of their skin or the area they live.

“Putting folks in large correctional facilities actually creates worse outcomes, actually leads to recidivism and particularly for youth it can be very traumatic,” said Rachael Deane of the Legal Aid Justice Center, the organization who worked along Art 180 for this exhibit to become a reality.

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Juvenile delinquency is a large problem in the state of Virginia, the total amount of juveniles in custody in is 1,563 (188 per 100k) (2013) making it 18th in the nation and higher than the national average of 173(per 100k). Unsurprising, this is more common in low-income areas and unfortunately young black males are usually the target as a result of these situations. The black to white ratio of juvenile imprisonment is 5:1, with Virginia’s numbers being 506 in custody compared to the 93 white youth(2013) according to The Sentencing Project. 

To emphasize these stats, the walls of the ART 180 gallery are covered in art either made by the incarcerated teens or was inspired by their circumstances, some with short stats and blurbs about youth incarceration. According to ART 180, it costs over $171,000 to incarcerate one child for one year in Virginia and $14,000 is the amount spent to educate one child for a year at Richmond Public Schools. 

 Art 180 artists directly worked with youth to help them channel their inner frustrations into something more creative for the “My Reality” exhibit.

The exhibit, which is #PerformingStatistics 3rd annual, was created in partnership with RISE for Youth (a bipartisan coalition a part of Legal Aid Justice Center), Scenic (a virtual reality content studio based in New York City), and artists Kate Deciccio, Roscoe Burnems, Catherine Komp and Mark Strandquist.

“What I did was take them through workshops, we would come in have a warm up, have a casual conversation just to know the guys, then we’d watch a video or poetry performance and from there we’ll just spark up some dialogue it was really just trying to get these guys to understand themselves a little better and the world around them a little better,” said Roscoe Burnems, a “My Reality” contributor and local poet.

This dialogue is what became the audio during the virtual reality experience. The choice to incorporate virtual reality into the exhibit was a no-brainer, as the technology it made for a powerful and novel narrative that one couldn’t experience from any other medium.

“We’re always trying to use art to work with people to understand not only what youth go through in the city, but what their potential is, and so that’s really about stepping into someone’s life and stepping into their shoes, and virtual reality is an amazing tool for that,” said Mark Strandquist, Creative Director of ART 180’s Youth Self Advocacy Through Art program.

“We literally can’t bring 1000s of people into a prison cell and make them know what it’s like to know what be there but we can for a few minutes virtually bring them there and have you understand from the teens perspective,” said Strandquist.

Not all of the teens were on board immediately with making art given their background according to Burnems.

“There was a kid who seemed not totally against the project but kind of like, ‘oh whatever, I’m gonna do what I want to’, he didn’t really care about poetry and none of that stuff, A few weeks in, he was helping lead the discussion and completely invested in it,” said Burnems.

We were all kids at one point and some of us still are and we know kids mainly just want to have fun, if their basic needs aren’t even met, something as simple as having fun is placed on the back burner. Gina Lyles, Program Coordinator for Self-Advocacy Through Art at Art 180 said it comes down to diverting funds to community-based efforts to engage youth. 

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“They(underprivileged youth) don’t have a lot of community-based support, things that steer towards youth development,” said Lyles. Lyles herself had been previously incarcerated as a kid and has since dedicated her life to prevent underprivileged youth to head down the same path she once walked.

“It’s all about funding, that money that the state is using to incarcerated youth could be put towards more community-based alternatives such as; mentoring, workshops,” said Lyles.

ART 180 specializes in one of these alternatives, inspiring youth year-round by using art to give them an opportunity to express themselves and keep them from problem behavior.

“That’s what community-based support looks like to me, keeping a kid close to home and giving them the resources they need it is an alternative to incarceration, we can stop the part of them actually committing crimes if we help support them and give them what they need before they commit a crime and go to jail,” said Lyles.

Beyond the virtual reality installation, the exhibit will include photographs, poetry, immersive audio installations, as well as take-action station will be present for those looking to get involved in local juvenile justice reform campaigns.

“My Reality” will run at ART 180 on West Marshall Street until Nov. 22.

*Cover Photo by Craig Zirpolo

 

Art Sponsored by Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art

 

Art 180 teens collaborate with local artist on Black Hand Coffee mural

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It seems every time you drive down one of Richmond’s bustling streets, walk down an alley way, or visit a popular restaurant or gallery, a new mural catches your eye. And as they continue to grow in numbers and variety, the city more and more vibrant.
[Read more…] about Art 180 teens collaborate with local artist on Black Hand Coffee mural