About this project

Concept:

-Traditional academic art training as a catalyst for conceptual theory -Focused on prospective art college students, ages 14-18 -Helping students build portfolios for competition and college application -Sharing a space with a functional contemporary gallery, which is operated by the Atelier -Monthly Enrollment provides the student with three classes a week, and access to all events and outings

Serious secondary art education does not exist outside of magnet schools. The majority of the currently available extra-curricular art alternatives are product-based and short-term. This sort of experience tends to be focused on the finished piece and not the myriad possibilities present within the process. Conversely, students of the Chorus Atelier learn how to make much more of their post-secondary education. Our students will move at a faster pace in the college environment, allowing them to stand out and putting them in front for competition and scholarship. Our students will be leaders. A successful student of the atelier leaves with a strong artistic vocabulary, ambition, confidence in themselves, an impressive portfolio, and strong industry and community connections.

The Atelier’s pedagogical philosophy uses intensive drawing as a point of departure for the students’ conceptual growth. This practice involves not teaching how to draw, but rather teaching how one learns to draw. Inside this process, there is constant breaking and rebuilding of the student’s aesthetic senses. We address this reconstruction with the student and present it as a conceptual dilemma. In practice, this means asking questions about what art is, can be, should be, and shouldn’t be to students- and having them come up with answers. This constant discussion, overlapping the moments of focus that occur in a classical training regiment, builds a sense of possibility. This also forces students to take a position and defend it- which leads to an evolution in their personal fluency of the art language. We believe in a holistic approach to art education: students take on all problems at once, not within an arbitrary step-by-step agenda. Being able to see and understand all the moving parts of art creation is key to a comprehensive and functional understanding of the aesthetic process.

Funding will be used to:

-obtain a location -provide basic supplies to students -bring in guest instructors -promotional and marketing materials -studio furnishings (easels, benches, lights)

check us out at

www.chorusatelier.com www.chorusgallery.com

(the video above was shot at a fund-raiser we held at Trina's Starlight Lounge in Cambridge MA . Clark Filio, Fionn McCabe, Rick Berry, and Rich Pellegrino all participated in a one night art show, and some live collaborative painting. This is the kind of community we are trying to build here, one that loves making art!)