About this project
Over and over, we've been told elementary students cannot be taught manual photography. Our students have heard that they shouldn't be exploring how to develop and manipulate pictures in a darkroom, and that we can't edit our own movies.
Our staff and students think this is bogus.
At one of Harlem Children Zone's elementary schools, Promise Academy II, we are trying to build a comprehensive art facility to let our students explore photography and film in the most hands-on way possible.
The program is in it's infancy, starting in September 2009. With this money, we can help build a better artistic structure in our school that will last much longer than the adults to teach it.
Academic Goals:
- Build a mobile dark room facility on-site to develop our own film and print our own pictures.
- Have a large enough camera inventory so each student can have a camera (30 students).
- Build two computers with basic editing software to edit photographs and motion film.
- Build a library full of art resource books, (photo, film, architecture, design, print-making, etc.) slides and archived material of our student's work.
- Begin work with medium format cameras and film
- and Create an infrastructure to digitize, archive, and preserve all our physical work.
Past Projects
- Where We're From: Students were given cameras to take home and explore compositional techniques to document the physical structures of their neighborhood with point and shoot cameras. The results were raw images of the urban landscapes that are homes to many of our students.
- Painting With Light: Our most successful project...students "painted with light" to explore with different exposure times, aperture, and lighting patterns. The results were amazing photographs to explore shapes and line.
- Darkroom Tests: On a trip to Columbia University's Art Studios, students got a tour of art and photography studios. Every student left with the knowledge of operating darkroom equipment, and their own 8 x 11 photographs which they experimented with and developed themselves!
- Earth Day, 2010: A movie made on Earth Day, 2010, documenting the construction of a planter by our students, and planting of tomato plants. The goal was to explore advocacy movie making, and in the end advocating for environmental changes around our school.
All proceeds will go towards equipment that will help us achieve our goals. And since we're a school, we tend to take field trips. When we can, we'd like to build relationships with the International Center of Photography in New York, MOMA (NY), Harlem Studio Museum,and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. We'd like to visit these places to learn more about the artistic community in New York City, and give the children a chance to see how professional work is displayed.
Thank you for your generosity!
FAQ
Have a question? If the info above doesn't help, you can ask the project creator directly.
28
Backers
$1,220
pledged of $2,000 goal
Funding Canceled
Funding for this project was canceled by the project creator on September 15, 2010.
Pledge $10 or more
A thank-you note of a picture taken by the kids, and signed by them too.
Pledge $30 or more
A set of four postcards of pictures taken by the children.
Pledge $50 or more
A thank-you note of a picture taken by the kids, a set of four postcards of pictures taken by the children, AND official sponsor status of our art program. We couldn't be more proud of your generosity.
Pledge $150 or more
All previous rewards and a personal meet and greet with our students for a tour of our program and projects.
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