New Videos!

Last week we worked on some promotional videos and these are the final edits!

The first one is for Toddler Tune Time, where young kids can explore musical instruments and songs. The second advertises the Summer program, which features a large variety of art class options for children.

One of my favorite classes that I took in school was video editing. The audience for these videos is mainly parents on Facebook, so they need to be able to tell a story about the class in a minute or less to make sure that people will actually watch them online - I tried to accomplish this by using quick cuts, a variety of shots that included both people and objects, and a tiny amount of text that paired well with the visuals.

So far I have had the opportunity to work very independently and build up a portfolio of images and videos created for social media, which is a field that i would like to work in at the end of this summer when I move. This experience is helping me prepare for this by giving me my first opportunities to create content directly for a client while thinking about a specific audience.

Introduction

Hi! My name is Anna and I just graduated from the photography program this month. I like to use many mediums to create satirical and political work that people are able to interact with - my thesis project was a board game about classism and the American Dream. I also like making music and zines, and I am a #professional dog walker.

This summer I'm working with Nicole Eiland, who owns an arts center in New Jersey called Eilandarts that offers arts programming for children and adults alike, as well as live music and art openings. I was especially interested in working with Nicole because there are multiple areas of focus like teaching, curating, music, and running a business, which are all things that I would like to be involved with in my future. I'll be specifically working with creating content for the Eilandarts social media accounts to promote their summer programming.

Eilandarts is located in a beautiful newly renovated building called The Station, and the gallery is in a huge, window lit room upstairs surrounded by classrooms for art classes and music lessons. So far this week, I've made two short videos that Eilandarts will be posting on their social media - one is a stop motion that shares information about their mix and match summer program, and another shows what kind of fun can be had at toddler tune time, a weekly class where young children explore musical instruments.

So far I've had a great time working at Eilandarts! I am able to conceptualize videos and images and make them by filming during the classes, interacting with the kids, and editing in the big gallery. I'm very excited to spend more time there this summer and continue to eat my way through the coffeeshop downstairs!

Introduction (Post #1)

Hi everyone! My name is Jess Dowicz and I’m a rising sophomore, majoring in painting/drawing within the IFA program. I particularly love to use watercolors as my main medium in painting, as it goes hand in hand with a very expressive nature of the brush strokes. I also love to use lots of different colors in my work in order to stimulate the viewer and transport them into another world of sorts, but also because I just love painting with all colors of the rainbow.  I am a passionate individual with every intention in using my artwork to change the world for the better and create a more conscious society.  

I’m very excited to have the opportunity to work alongside my host, Neal Hughes, an extraordinary Plein-Air oil painter. For those who are unaware, plein-air pertains to the style of painting that is outdoors in open air, in order to capture the natural light and atmosphere, opposed to artificial light found in a closed indoor studio.

So far I have helped Neal get ready for his plein-air competitions by preparing the frames so that they will be able to hold finished pieces and hung on the wall. I have also prepared the boards that Neal will use to paint on. I’m used to only stretching and using traditional canvas to paint on so it was really interesting to see all the different methods that one can use to paint on. I also got the chance to go to a recent plein-air competition that Neal and many other talented artists competed in. I was able to witness first-hand how these competitions are structured as well as seeing all the different types of styles and works produced. The competition was held in Wayne, PA and each day a new venue would be selected within the local area. The day I went, the venue was the Chanticleer, a beautiful botanical garden and estate. I would recommend visiting the garden even for a day trip to anyone (maybe even for a picnic J.)

By working more with Neal, I’ll be learning about studio practices and preparing materials for painting, new painting techniques and procedures, correctly photographing work to be shown online and make giclee prints (ink jet), keeping records and inventory of paintings, and becoming versed in the plein-air community and the competitions/festivals. Within the sort amount of time I’ve spent with Neal, I have learned so much and I’m looking forward to what else I will be exposed to.

Introduction

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Meredith and I'm approaching my junior year as a dance student at UArts. This summer I'm working for Eryc Taylor Dance which is a ten-year-old contemporary ballet company in New York City. I wanted to learn about both the creative process and all the other aspects of how the company is maintained, so I'm working with Eryc and the company manager in their daily operations in addition to observing rehearsals and the choreographic process. 

I started on Monday, so this has been my first week working. I will not attend rehearsals until next week, so right now I've just been learning a lot about the non-performative aspects of running a nonprofit company. I've been working with Quickbooks, an accounting and financial management software that allows you to manage finances, expenses, and income. I've also learned how to use Philantrack, a software that organizes, saves, and auto-fills grants, and Grantstation, a service through which you can search for grants. 

It's strange to be living away from home in a situation that's not oriented around a group of peers (such as a summer intensive where everyone goes to class together and sometimes lives in the same housing), but I am becoming more accustomed to it. Searching for housing for three months in New York was definitely harder than I expected. It's incredibly expensive (especially compared to Philly) and location is very difficult. I'm working a few blocks from Times Square, and finding somewhere that was a half hour or less subway commute and not an illegal sublet arrangement for $1,000 or under a month was incredibly challenging. I'm living in a residence hall for students and interns on the Upper West Side, but my parents found this after we had spent weeks searching and they raised their prices several hundred dollars per month about a week after I had committed (luckily this didn't affect me, as I had already reserved a room and paid, but it goes to show how expensive housing is here). 

Overall, my first week has taught me a lot about both what goes into running a dance company, running a nonprofit in general, and living/working as an artist in New York City. It is wonderful that creative work alludes the same attachment to currency that other profit-driven work holds, but this makes it a lot more difficult to orient with how the rest of the world is structured. It's hard to have an organization that isn't inherently about making money but needs money to be able to continue to operate. It's useful to be learning more about this now so I can have a better idea of what the realities of the dance world are. Overall, it's been an exciting, if slightly overwhelming week, and I'm looking forward to learning more with the weeks to come.