Goodnow Garden Totem Project

This is an awesome project! I was invited to a 6 day residency by Amy Macht (The Macht Foundation) and Gloria Jenkins from the Goodnow Community Center in Baltimore. I have worked with them before to create Good Character Banners, Ancestor Masks and even a fiberglass Baltimore Crab sculpture with the young people who come to them for after school activities.

When I arrived at the center for a planning meeting, I saw the new community garden that they had created last Summer. I immediately envisioned the totems in my mind's eye! I was told that their neighborhood has new residents who are refugees from Bhuton and the Congo. The fact is that they had requested the opportunity to grow food on some unused land at the center. Out of this sprung a Community Garden.

Six workshops later, our participants had reviewed totem history in the Americas as well as abroad to inspire them. The created shapes and sketches for each piece on the poles. They then painted their shapes which were assembled onto the poles to bring the energy of growth, partnership and sustainability to their own garden.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Collaboration

Within each residency, students achieve success as individual artists as well as in collaboration with fellow students.

2009 Character Banner Project, Charles Drew ES in Silver Spring MD

Caryl Henry Alexander and Jesse Alexander present:

Baltimore Ceramic Mask Making Residency

This is definately an exciting opportunity. I am working with an awesome art teacher and students to create "self portrait" masks. I have 4 days with the students, day 1 we worked with clay to cast faces, day two we shared a cool presentation on mask history and current uses from all over the world. We then created unique surface designs for our masks. Here are some pics from the first two of four workshops.

Day of the Dead Workshop Registration Deadline November 4!

VIVA Mission Cultural Center! My first Day of the Dead

The Mission Cultural Center in San Fransisco CA is the place where I was first exposed to the Day of the Dead.
http://www.missionculturalcenter.org/

I was invited in 1986 to participate in an exhibition that was called "Rooms for the Dead". Each of 25 artists were invited to create an artwork inspired by the traditional Dia de los Muertos alters.
I see on their website that this has become a tradition at the center.
http://www.missionculturalcenter.org/call-to-artists.html

Day of the Dead

A Hands on Visual Art Workshop
Offered by,
Caryl Henry Alexander

Saturday, November 7, 2009
10am-1pm $35.00 per student
To register:
caryl@bigbangbanners.com

Tell all your people! Thnx!

Pathways Ancestor Mask Project

Kudos to the Montgomery County Skilled Craftspeople!

A great crew of four craftspeople from Montgomery County's Department of Education installed the banners at Rosemary Hill. What a great experience to have their support on the project. Thank you!

Rosemary Hill Banner Project Dedication

Miranda Bradley, Art Specialist, RHES

Art that's good for the heart

http://www.gazette.net/stories/03252009/silvnew184240_32481.shtml

Greetings Art Ed Spot fans! I want to share with you this article about my most recent MSAC AIE project. It was an awesome experience working with the Rosemary Hills school community. Kudos to the PTA and their amazing corps of volunteers. Thanks to all 2nd grade faculty and students for all their creativity and cooperation.
Pics to follow shortly.

MSAC Arts in Education Selection Conference 2009

Today I attended the annual MSAC Arts in Education Selection Conference. This year it was held again at the Howard County Arts Council in Ellicott City. The conference is held to give schools and artists a chance to network and plan for the upcoming AIE grant cycle.

I was surprised to see handful of schools that were represented. In fact the whole event was pretty well empty in relationship to past year's events. Usually I have 15-20 new contacts when I leave the place and today, 5 new folks!

It was also good to meet the new MSAC AIE program director, a writer whose name is Christina Stewart. Thanks for the pic Chris! After she welcomed everyone to the conference, she announced that there have been a few changes to the program for next year. Most amazing, is the fact that all artists now MUST have a certificate of insurance on file at the MSAC office proving that we carry liability coverage of 1 million dollars.

I love these unfunded mandates. I remember when the Bush administration passed nclb and the schools were crying about this sort of thing. Now they are doing the same to the artists who offer residencies in the communities.

ACTION ALERT

Friends, Have you have been hearing the inflammatory conversation on the impacts of the arts in our communities? What planet are these guys on? Look around, the arts bring economic benefits to ALL of our towns and cities.

Preaching to the choir? Please take a moment to support the funding proposed in President Obama's stimulus package for the National Endowment for the arts.
CLICK BELOW to share your opinion with your representatives.

http://capwiz.com/artsusa/issues/alert/?alertid=12426636&type=CO

In my professional life the NEA is the org that gets the big bucks and re-grants to the states and counties and orgs. It is crucial to the livelihood of today's working artists. Especially those who focus on education and building communities!
Thanks for the support

2008 a Year of Great People and Projects

2008 Maryland Art Education Association Conference

Howard County art teachers create their “Personal Place of Piece” for their classrooms during an “Outside The Box” workshop, Spring 08.

This past Friday, October 17, I attended the Maryland Art Education Association Conference at Bates Middle School, in Annapolis. The event was well attended by Maryland's art education professionals. I met a lot of new and interesting people in the cafeteria in between sessions.

Teachers showed great interest in the work that I do with young people and my “Outside The Box” professional development workshops.

There were lots of requests for more information about my Ancestor mask, Paper making/handmade books, Murals and Recycle art projects!


Thank you for your interest! Lets continue our conversation and create an awesome residency for your school community. I can be contacted directly at: Or through
The Maryland State Arts Council msac.org
And
Young Audiences Arts of Learning yamd.org
I was volunteering at Young Audience's table with Pat Cruz. The real fun began when Pat brought out her T-shirts!