FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Pixelated Communal Portraits: A communal approach to portraiture
TORONTO, ON (March 30, 2011) – Arts for Children and Youth (AFCY) is so proud to celebrate a community sharing event for our Pixelated Communal Portraits program, which helps young people in high-priority neighbourhoods celebrate creativity in diversity through digital portraiture. On March 28th we invited Malvern residents to participate in a community portrait by having their picture taken in a Snapz portable photo booth that AFCY placed on site at Dr. Marion Hilliard Senior Public School at 280 Washburn Way, Scarborough in the Malvern community.
Inviting the community to participate in a photo booth day creates an opportunity for everyone to come together and explore their creative potential. Community members were able to take home a copy of the photo strips, which the photo booth prints in duplicate. The other copy will be used by the youth in the Pixelated Communal Portraits program to create a large-scale digital portrait of their community. The final project will be showcased at Dr. Marion Hilliard Senior Public School after the completion of the year-long program in June.
Since October 2010, 26 participants in Grades 7 & 8 at Dr. Marion Hilliard have been working every week on their Pixelated Communal Portrait project. This included creating masks and decorating them with photos and found imagery during the program. With guidance from AFCY professional photographer John Beebe, the youth have learned photography skills and used digital cameras throughout the year. The photo booth day is a chance for them to get creative with the idea of a ‘portrait’ – holding up their artworks, props or mirrors within the photo booth picture to create multiple exposures and pictures within pictures. The event is part of AFCY’s Community Sharing Program.
AFCY operates afterschool Pixelated Communal Portraits programs in three Toronto schools, in partnership with the Beyond 3:30 program, which is a shared initiative of the Toronto Community Foundation, TDSB’s Model Schools for Inner Cities Initiative and the Toronto Foundation for Student Success (TFSS). In addition to the weekly program at Dr. Marion Hilliard, similar programs are underway at Brookview Middle School (Jane-Finch) and Lawrence Heights Middle School (Lawrence Heights). AFCY will be holding half-day, fun-filled events at these schools for participants, teachers, parents, as well as the surrounding community in April and May.
“The focus of this program is creative community participation. It’s about providing opportunities for local youth to identify themselves as creative leaders in their community,” explains Julie Frost, AFCY Executive/Artistic Director. “ The photo booth creates a buzz – it invites people to stick around and step into a safe space to express, work together and have fun. Essentially, the booth itself can be seen as an innovative art resource – it’s an image maker and a place for new dialogues to happen.”
The young people who participate in these programs are so enthusiastic. One young man was asked how he felt when he was taking pictures in one of our programs and he said, emphatically “I feel like a PROFESSIONAL!” It’s hearing such passion in the participants’ voices that makes leading these programs so rewarding for AFCY staff, volunteers, and instructors.
AFCY values community, relationship building and youth participation. What is important about these after-school outreach programs is that youth participation leads to creative and leadership opportunities for young people that are essential to making a healthy transition into adulthood.
The Pixelated Communal Portraits program was funded by the Vital Toronto Fund with support from the Ada W. Slaight Fund, two endowments at the Toronto Community Foundation, as well as the Audrey S. Hellyer Charitable Foundation. This is the second year that AFCY has been involved as a major arts provider for the Beyond 3:30 program.
AFCY’s Community Sharing Program is our way of sharing what students learn in our programs with their families and the entire community around them. This learning experience will culminate in a day where parents and teachers can participate in their children’s accomplishments.
About AFCY:
AFCY is a registered charitable organization. We ally with high priority communities and empower marginalized children and youth by engaging them in hands-on, community and school-based arts education programs that respect existing cultural and community activity, resulting in participatory action and social awareness. To learn more about us, please visit www.afcy.ca. You can email us at info@afcy.ca or call us at 416-929-9314.
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Shehreen Ladha
Marketing and PR Coordinator
401 Richmond St. West, Suite 230
Toronto, ON M5V 3A8
416 929 9314 x 114
shehreen@afcy.ca
