This summer will be the second summer GRDC is offering a creative arts program for Grandmont Rosedale area youth ages 13-17. This free, summer-long arts program will meet twice a week, Mondays and Wednesdays from 1-5pm at the Chaney Branch Library, 16101 Grand River. Local artists from all over Detroit will work with the program participants, getting them involved in a wide variety of creative expression. For instance, CANVASxDetroit will offer an acrylic-on-canvas workshop where the youth will experience how they can impact their community through art. The participants will also be encouraged to share their voices through literary expression with the professional writers from InsideOut. Local ceramicist M. Kay Willingham will show the youth the process of creating ceramic tiles. For youth who are interested in theater-performance arts, Go Comedy! Improv Theater will also host a workshop. And then there’s also a photography scavenger hunt at a sculpture park, and a trip to a gallery garage that features public art, and a really exciting trip to a circus school, and a workshop with a fiber artist and a group mosaic project for the Grandmont Rosedale community! Whew! You get the idea: if creativity is your thing, you need to apply to the Loyal to Your Soil Creative Arts Program.
Last year the arts program had more participants than space. In order to be sure there’s room for you, submit your application and registration form by May 30. Your application should include a brief essay explaining why you want to participate in the program and what creative ideas you have of your own. While most of the creative arts workshops will be held at the library, there will also be several off-site workshops to which transportation will be provided. The program will also make a return trip to the Heidelberg Project. This trip was a favorite last year. As Becki Kenderes, GRDC’s Sustainable Communities Program Manager remembers, “the kids toured the art site, met Tyree Guyton, and completed a found object art workshop at his private studio.” It really is a special opportunity to meet and work with working artists in the community. The students’ work of the summer will be displayed in an art show at the end of the program. Who knows? It could be the beginning of a career in the arts!
List of workshops and descriptions.
CANVASxDetroit
CANVASxDetroit created a space where people could be creative and expressive. They offer offering acrylic-on-canvas painting classes and open studio painting sessions to students, businesses and communities. Program participants will contribute to a workshop focused on how to impact communities through art.
InsideOut Detroit
InsideOut inspires students to think broadly, create bravely and share their voices with the wider world by immersing them in poetry and literary self-expression. Guided by professional writers and celebrated by publications and performances, program participants will learn that their stories and ideas matter and that their pens can launch them off the page into extraordinary lives.
Ceramics with local artist M. Kay Willingham
Students will be introduced to ceramics by local artist M. Kay Willingham. Participants will learn the process of creating ceramic tiles from glazing to kiln firing. M. Kay Willingham opened Art in Motion, a local ceramic studio and gallery furthering the arts enrichment with opportunity for ceramic artists and local residents to work and inspire others through a community studio.
Go Comedy! Improv Theater
Go Comedy! Improv Theater is based on three principles: Integrity, Inspiration and Innovation. They execute these principles for the benefit of the audience, the community and ourselves. Program participants will work with improv performers to learn the basics of improv which involves listening, agreement, cooperation, supporting the ideas of others, give and take, and conflict resolution.
Heidelberg Project
The Heidelberg Project is a Detroit-based community organization designed to improve the lives of people and neighborhoods through art. Their mission is to inspire people to appreciate and use artistic expression to enrich their lives and to improve the social and economic health of their greater community. Program participants will have the opportunity to visit the Heidelberg Project with a guided tour and a studio visit with Tyree Guyton.
Lincoln Street Art Park
The Lincoln Street Art Park is a program of Green Living Science meant to inspire, bring joy and creativity. Their montra is if you build it they will come, if they build it they will stay. The sculpture garden, is an instance of public art to serve as a destination and as a discovery. The students in the program will explore the art park with a photography scavenger hunt.
The Alley Project
TAP (The Alley Project) is an initiative of Young Nation. The gallery includes a garage that contains a studio and gallery space for youth and the community, two lots that provide a common art space for neighbors and artists, bike racks for youth traveling on two wheels, and a walking gallery along an alley that spans one city block with high-quality, multi-color murals with signage to honor and explain the history of the pieces and the alley on garages and other surfaces. In these spaces youth and community members can create, show, and/or see street art in a way that is legal, safe, and supports learning and relationships.
Detroit Flyhouse
The circus school offers training for children and adults in traditional circus arts including aerial silks, trapeze, aerial ring, partner acrobatics, fire performance, and more. Circus classes teach foundational circus artistry while building life-enhancing skills such as confidence, responsibility, poise, teamwork, and discipline. Detroit Flyhouse Circus School students improve coordination, balance, strength, conditioning, and overall fitness in a non-competitive, supportive, fun, and positive environment.
Shibori
With local fiber artist, Sarah Bickmann, students will be introduced to the fabric dying technique, shibori. Shibori is a method of dyeing cloth with a pattern by binding, stitching, folding, twisting, compressing it, or capping. Participants will dye t-shirts provided to them.
Mosaic Community Art with Hubert Masey
Program participants will have the opportunity to work with Detroit artist Hubert Massey on a mosaic in the Grandmont Rosedale community. Hubert Massey is well versed in numerous Fine Art techniques. Based on these talents, he has been commissioned to participate in many art programs, workshops and gallery exhibitions.
For more information, contact Jessica Bickmann at 313-387-4732, ext. 119. Click here to download the flyer!