...On vacation.
Afterschool starts again January 12th, 2010
Preschool starts again January 6th, 2010
See you in the new year!
Friday, December 18, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
Family Night
Family Night is this Thursday, December 10th from 5:00-6:30. Urban Arts Families are invited to a night of food, fun and performance. The Re-Use band will be playing for us again, and we will get to see what our classrooms have been working on for the past 3 months.
See you there!
See you there!
Thanks to Pizza Luce in Seward for donating pizza to our volunteer and intern appreciation party. YUM!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
WORMS!
It's a creepy crawly time of year-- and we like it that way. Thank you to Ellen and the folks at Laverme's Worms for their generous donation of worms and bins. We will be working with our classrooms to learn about composting with worms AND we have a few thousand new pets. We are so excited! Come by to see them.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Chatterbox Kick-Off Event
Want to Score a perfect 10? Join us October 20th @ the Chatterbox Pub in Linden Hills to support Youth and Art!
Chatterbox has graciously offered to supply customers (who ask to participate) with a swipe-able card that will give you 10% off your purchase AND 10% of your purchase to Urban Arts Academy AND this offer lasts forever! It s a Win-Win-Win situation.
Tuesday, October 20th 6:30-8:30pm Chatterbox Linden Hills 4501 France Ave S
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
First week of Afterschool!
Congratulations and Thanks to all of our incredible staff, interns, volunteers and parents for a great first two days! Bienvenidos!
Friday, September 25, 2009
Earthdance @ Powderhorn Park this Saturday
Earth Dance at Powderhorn 9/26 Cost: FREE
"Earthdance, which began in 1995, is the world's largest synchronized music and dance event. We will be celebrating on Saturday, September 26th from 1 - 9pm in beautiful Powderhorn Park. There will be a ...wide variety of multi-cultural musical acts and dance troupes."
Urban Arts will be there in the beginning talking with neighborhood folks about our programs and signing up a few students to fill our afterschool program. Come stop by our table and say Hi!
"Earthdance, which began in 1995, is the world's largest synchronized music and dance event. We will be celebrating on Saturday, September 26th from 1 - 9pm in beautiful Powderhorn Park. There will be a ...wide variety of multi-cultural musical acts and dance troupes."
Urban Arts will be there in the beginning talking with neighborhood folks about our programs and signing up a few students to fill our afterschool program. Come stop by our table and say Hi!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Beginning Again
Although we miss our awesome crew from this summer, we are excited to get to know over 12 new interns who will start their orientation on Tuesday. This semester's intern staff comes from a variety of colleges, professional fields and walks of life. They will work in our Elementary and Middle School Afterschool Programs, our Preschool, and administratively to more than double our staff.
Welcome! (and welcome back to our Summer 2009 interns who are still finding the time to keep volunteering with us!)
Welcome! (and welcome back to our Summer 2009 interns who are still finding the time to keep volunteering with us!)
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Urban Arts meets Full Cycle!
What an amazing couple of days! Yesterday, Full Cycle bike shop brought over all sorts of bikes for the Kid Power kids to try out. 
Most of the kids were old pros at riding bikes, but for a couple, learning to ride was something new and challenging. But everyone was enthusiastic and encouraging, so the kids just learning to ride made a TON of progress!
But the best part: when the kids found a bike that fit their size and color choice, they got to KEEP IT! Well, almost. First, we got to use them for some fantastic art making. We biked back to Full Cycle today, and everything was set up and ready for us. We taped sheets of paper inside special metal frames that we set on the floor.
We used a flour sifter to sprinkle the entire paper with colored chalk - we had red, blue, blaze orange and purple! 
Then we were ready to make some art.
Then we were ready to make some art. We mounted our bikes and rode across the chalk, leaving a very interesting and specific type of track... an artistic track, you could say. So artistic, in fact, we could even call it: TREAD ART! Art made from the treads of bike tires. 
Both the Kid Power kids and the Full Cycle staff seemed to have a terrific time, and everyone was happy to be making art and riding bikes.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Borders fundraiser voucher
Here it is, the Borders fundraiser voucher! Print it off and bring it into the Borders bookstores in Richfield and Roseville anytime between Saturday, August 15, and Wednesday, August 19 to have 15% of your purchase go towards Urban Arts! Print off several and give them to your friends!
Kid Power Part 2 - Week 1
Urban Arts summer camps have come to a close, which means it's time for the second part of Kid Power to begin! Kid Power participants must be invited into the program to ensure there are are enough mentors for the students - about 2 or 3 kids per mentor is what we strive for. For the next two weeks, we will be taking field trips, going swimming, cooking in the kitchen, and of course, working on our FullCycle bike projects!
Today we will be bussing over to MCTC to participate in the SPEAK Project. The SPEAK Project was developed by the Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center to help urban youth support their own neighborhoods through the creation of public metal art pieces. MCTC will be giving our KidPower kids instruction on basic metal fabrication techniques so they can create their own piece of metal art.
http://foundation.minneapolis.edu/newsandevents
Today we will be bussing over to MCTC to participate in the SPEAK Project. The SPEAK Project was developed by the Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center to help urban youth support their own neighborhoods through the creation of public metal art pieces. MCTC will be giving our KidPower kids instruction on basic metal fabrication techniques so they can create their own piece of metal art.
http://foundation.minneapolis.edu/newsandevents
Monday, July 27, 2009
Fundraiser with Borders bookstores!
Borders bookstore has been kind enough to help us raise some funds for our fantastic programs! If you shop at the Borders in Richfield or Rosedale August 15 – 19, present the Urban Arts voucher and 15% of the net sales raised will be donated to Urban Arts Academy!
On Saturday, August 15, stop by the Borders in Richfield at 1pm or the Borders in Rosedale at 6pm to see us! We'll have Tread Print art made by Urban Arts kids on display, with supplies available for anyone to reinact - on a smaller scale - their own Tread Art! What is Tread Art, you're wondering? Well. The Urban Arts Academy's Kid Power program will be working with FullCycle bike shop to create some unique and fun pieces of artwork, known as Tread Art. Our kids will ride bikes through chalk across a canvas, leaving patterns that result in one-of-a-kind pieces of art. Still confused, or just curious? Stop by Borders on Aug. 15 and see what we're talking about!
And thank you friends and family, interns and staff for making Family Night a HUGE success! The kids had so much fun showing off their projects, and it was great to get to see everyone all together for the evening.
On Saturday, August 15, stop by the Borders in Richfield at 1pm or the Borders in Rosedale at 6pm to see us! We'll have Tread Print art made by Urban Arts kids on display, with supplies available for anyone to reinact - on a smaller scale - their own Tread Art! What is Tread Art, you're wondering? Well. The Urban Arts Academy's Kid Power program will be working with FullCycle bike shop to create some unique and fun pieces of artwork, known as Tread Art. Our kids will ride bikes through chalk across a canvas, leaving patterns that result in one-of-a-kind pieces of art. Still confused, or just curious? Stop by Borders on Aug. 15 and see what we're talking about!
And thank you friends and family, interns and staff for making Family Night a HUGE success! The kids had so much fun showing off their projects, and it was great to get to see everyone all together for the evening.
The World in which We Live
Its here, everybody, and all too soon - the final week of Urban Arts Summer Camps! This week's theme is "The World in which We Live". All week we will be creating art that can ONLY be made here in Minneapolis/St. Paul.
It's the Starfish's turn to venture downtown with their black and white film cameras to capture images of the city. They will be developing the film themselves, learning about photography as well as the images of the city.
The Dolphins will be spending the week at Powderhorn Park, creating sculptures out of clay found locally.
Sharks and Polar Bears will be spending part of their time this week cooking food native to Minnesota. When not cooking, the groups will be doing some filmmaking.
It's a busy week for everyone as we wrap up Urban Arts Summer Camps. Everyone has made wonderful artwork, learned new skills, made new friends, and had an overall grand time!
It's the Starfish's turn to venture downtown with their black and white film cameras to capture images of the city. They will be developing the film themselves, learning about photography as well as the images of the city.
The Dolphins will be spending the week at Powderhorn Park, creating sculptures out of clay found locally.
Sharks and Polar Bears will be spending part of their time this week cooking food native to Minnesota. When not cooking, the groups will be doing some filmmaking.
It's a busy week for everyone as we wrap up Urban Arts Summer Camps. Everyone has made wonderful artwork, learned new skills, made new friends, and had an overall grand time!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Pictures!
This is The Way We MOVE! And here are pictures to prove it! Everything from marionettes to catapaults, Rube Goldberg projects and paint, we have definitely made some movement this week.
Tracking our movement with paint, we got to get really messy outside in the best way possible!
Here we are, making our own marionettes out of cardboard, papier mache and paint. Once our puppets are finished, we'll be able to put on a show about raccoons, bears, and all sorts of other animals from the forest!
Our Rube Goldberg projects... Orchestrating a series of interconnected chain reactions takes a lot of work and imagination, but the end result is totally worth it!
Tracking our movement with paint, we got to get really messy outside in the best way possible!
Creating our own catapaults combined a little physics with a lot of imagination!
Here we are, making our own marionettes out of cardboard, papier mache and paint. Once our puppets are finished, we'll be able to put on a show about raccoons, bears, and all sorts of other animals from the forest!
Our Rube Goldberg projects... Orchestrating a series of interconnected chain reactions takes a lot of work and imagination, but the end result is totally worth it!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Week 4: The Way We Move
This week at Urban Arts it's all about the way we move !
Gustavo is busy teaching marionette making to the Dolphins and Sharks. Gustavo has worked with puppetry, theatre and set design, mask making and traditional dance for over 23 years. He is also involved in the Heart of the Beast Theatre May Day Parade held yearly in Powderhorn park just down the street. Gustavo brings a wealth of experience to Urban Arts and the marionette class is sure to produce amazing results!
Angela is channelling Rube Goldberg in her "Chain Reactions" class. The Starfish and Polar Bears are creating small to large scale chain reactions with blocks, marbles, wheels and whatever they can get their hands on! Think what you used to do with dominoes as a kid, but much more intricate, colorful and experimental. Angela showed us all a really cool video of two artists, David Weiss and Peter Fischli who make their living creating chain reactions, check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U82eWptFxSs
The Sharks and Dolphins are learning the science behind catapults with Tou. The catapult may seem ancient or outdated but it needs no gas or fuel to power itself, how green and 21st century! The catapult class teaches us about the mechanics behind the catapult. We learn words like velocity and distance, which play a big part in physics equations, while building and having fun!
The Polar Bears and Starfish are using their art history knowledge to re-create large scale paintings with Elisa. Jackson Pollack and Kara Walker are two extremely brilliant and talented artists who are acting as the inspiration for us this week. We made large scale splatter paintings just like Pollack and we will be creating dynamic body silhouette paintings. Each of these artists capture two different kinds of movement in their work; the movement of the artist's hand/gesture and the anatomic shape and movement of the body's silhouette.
Don't forget about Family Night this Thursday! Just read yesterday's post for more information.
Gustavo is busy teaching marionette making to the Dolphins and Sharks. Gustavo has worked with puppetry, theatre and set design, mask making and traditional dance for over 23 years. He is also involved in the Heart of the Beast Theatre May Day Parade held yearly in Powderhorn park just down the street. Gustavo brings a wealth of experience to Urban Arts and the marionette class is sure to produce amazing results!
Angela is channelling Rube Goldberg in her "Chain Reactions" class. The Starfish and Polar Bears are creating small to large scale chain reactions with blocks, marbles, wheels and whatever they can get their hands on! Think what you used to do with dominoes as a kid, but much more intricate, colorful and experimental. Angela showed us all a really cool video of two artists, David Weiss and Peter Fischli who make their living creating chain reactions, check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U82eWptFxSs
The Sharks and Dolphins are learning the science behind catapults with Tou. The catapult may seem ancient or outdated but it needs no gas or fuel to power itself, how green and 21st century! The catapult class teaches us about the mechanics behind the catapult. We learn words like velocity and distance, which play a big part in physics equations, while building and having fun!
The Polar Bears and Starfish are using their art history knowledge to re-create large scale paintings with Elisa. Jackson Pollack and Kara Walker are two extremely brilliant and talented artists who are acting as the inspiration for us this week. We made large scale splatter paintings just like Pollack and we will be creating dynamic body silhouette paintings. Each of these artists capture two different kinds of movement in their work; the movement of the artist's hand/gesture and the anatomic shape and movement of the body's silhouette.
Don't forget about Family Night this Thursday! Just read yesterday's post for more information.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Family Night & Lasagna Dinner
This Thursday is FAMILY NIGHT! Any student who has attended any week of our summer camps is encouraged to bring their family on down to Urban Arts to see all that we have accomplished so far this summer. There will be performances and art displays and chances to meet and greet other Urban Arts friends and families. As if we need another reason to come to family night, we will also be serving a delicious lasagna dinner for free to all who attend.
When: Thursday, July 23, 5-6:30pm
Where:
Urban Arts Academy
Fellowship Hall at Calvary Church
3901 Chicago Ave South
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Who:
Any student who has attended any week of our summer camps
Hope to see you there!
When: Thursday, July 23, 5-6:30pm
Where:
Urban Arts Academy
Fellowship Hall at Calvary Church
3901 Chicago Ave South
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Who:
Any student who has attended any week of our summer camps
Hope to see you there!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
field trip week!
We've gotten to the middle of our weeks of summer camp, which means exciting things for all of us. The Sharks and Polar Bears are both taking excursions to new locations this week, while the Starfish and Dolphins get to have Urban Arts all to themselves!
On Monday, the Sharks took the city bus to Downtown Minneapolis, equipped with black and white film cameras. In two smaller groups, we explored Hennepin Avenue and nearby streets, taking pictures of transportation, architecture, people and art. This was the exhausting part, but one of us had a lovely nap on the bus ride back to Urban Arts. The rest of this week is spent in a darkroom at IFP Center for Media Arts in St. Paul, where we developed the pictures ourselves. It was a little tricky figuring how much light to expose onto the photo paper, but everyone got at least a couple amazing results!
The Polar Bears have been venturing out to Powderhorn Park on foot, where we have been molding and sculpting clay into pots, volcanoes, creatures and objects so thick they exploded in the kiln. We also cooked up some homemade clay and self-drying lint-based clay, which smelled kind of funny. Our recycled lint combined with our imaginations turned into various monsters and intern caricatures; by the end of the week we had enough work for our Thursday afternoon art show. What a week!
This week the Dolphins and the Starfish have been having a great time experimenting with mix-media sculpture. We've been creating bugs out of unusual items and toys that you might see around the house, and created habitats for our bugs to reside. This week we've also had the wonderful opportunity to explore sound and the art of radio broadcasting. We've been exploring ways to make different noises with ourselves vocally, with music instruments, and with things around our art space. Then we planned a story to tell in a radio format. In the end, we had a whole radio show that we played for all our friends and family members!
Well, it was a fantastic week here at Urban Arts, and we are all looking forward to next week's theme of "The Way We Move". Adios!
On Monday, the Sharks took the city bus to Downtown Minneapolis, equipped with black and white film cameras. In two smaller groups, we explored Hennepin Avenue and nearby streets, taking pictures of transportation, architecture, people and art. This was the exhausting part, but one of us had a lovely nap on the bus ride back to Urban Arts. The rest of this week is spent in a darkroom at IFP Center for Media Arts in St. Paul, where we developed the pictures ourselves. It was a little tricky figuring how much light to expose onto the photo paper, but everyone got at least a couple amazing results!
The Polar Bears have been venturing out to Powderhorn Park on foot, where we have been molding and sculpting clay into pots, volcanoes, creatures and objects so thick they exploded in the kiln. We also cooked up some homemade clay and self-drying lint-based clay, which smelled kind of funny. Our recycled lint combined with our imaginations turned into various monsters and intern caricatures; by the end of the week we had enough work for our Thursday afternoon art show. What a week!
This week the Dolphins and the Starfish have been having a great time experimenting with mix-media sculpture. We've been creating bugs out of unusual items and toys that you might see around the house, and created habitats for our bugs to reside. This week we've also had the wonderful opportunity to explore sound and the art of radio broadcasting. We've been exploring ways to make different noises with ourselves vocally, with music instruments, and with things around our art space. Then we planned a story to tell in a radio format. In the end, we had a whole radio show that we played for all our friends and family members!
Well, it was a fantastic week here at Urban Arts, and we are all looking forward to next week's theme of "The Way We Move". Adios!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
messy days are the best days
Wow, what a week! Today is Thursday, which means final touches are being added to projects and anticipation is growing among anxious parents waiting to see what their kids have been doing all week. Constructing me-pod structures took a lot of time, thought, and effort, but the results are outstanding! Learning the culinary arts, we made bread and pesto, fudge and smoothies, and gained all sorts of new skills we can put to use in the kitchen. Making music with all our own instruments, we learned what kinds of sounds we can make and learned more about ourselves in the process. We took pictures without cameras by using alternate methods of photography, and worked in our own dark room to process our pictures. In short, we did A LOT!
Here we are, making some very delicious fudge in the kitchen
Chocolate chips are the best!
Messy hands are the telltale sign of a good time and a tasty treat!
Fudge-making is definitely a team effort
All sorts of very fancy techniques were used to brighten up the me-pods.
The splatter technique
When one brush just isn't enough...
<----The whole-hand method really adds a personal "touch"
After this week of finding out all about ourselves, we are ready to take on the weekend! And before you know it, we'll be back on Monday for another fantastic week at Urban Arts Academy.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
all about me
This weeks summer arts camp theme is "All About Me!" Everyone is finding new ways of exploring who they are through art and imagination. The Sharks group has been making personality cubes, putting different expressions of their choosing on each side of a cube. They're also having a blast making "me-pods," person-size spaces where the creator can retreat to when they need some time to reflect. The shark Alex J. is making his into a robot - way to go for creativity, Alex! A lot of the kids are adding some papier mache aspects to their my-pods, which is always fun when you get to mess around with gooey goopy gunk.
Some groups also got to wear their chef hats today - figuratively, that is! They made flat bread and pesto, and shared their creations, too! Not everyone was a fan of the pesto, but the bread was a hit. "Did you know there's FUNGUS in here?!" said Christian, speaking, of course, of the yeast.
Today was a great success, and everyone is very ready to have a good nights sleep tonight!
And keep in mind: another person's trash is another's treasure! At Urban Arts, we are always taking in donations of art supplies and building materials. If you have something you think we might, maybe, possibly be able to use, give us a call! Chances are, we can use it!
Some groups also got to wear their chef hats today - figuratively, that is! They made flat bread and pesto, and shared their creations, too! Not everyone was a fan of the pesto, but the bread was a hit. "Did you know there's FUNGUS in here?!" said Christian, speaking, of course, of the yeast.
Today was a great success, and everyone is very ready to have a good nights sleep tonight!
And keep in mind: another person's trash is another's treasure! At Urban Arts, we are always taking in donations of art supplies and building materials. If you have something you think we might, maybe, possibly be able to use, give us a call! Chances are, we can use it!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
First Week of Summer Arts Camp
The Urban Arts Academy is just finishing up the first week of summer arts camps. We have made new friends and new art, and both staff and students are having a blast doing it! This week's theme was "The Magic of Art". We have created fierce and magnificent dragons, built houses for fairies, made masks and puppets, explored alternative photography, and almost anything else our imaginations could come up with.
Next week's theme is "All About Me". We will use art to explore ourselves and our worlds, and make art that only each of us can make. Whether through film or photography, music or stories, we will each finish the week having a deeper understanding of who we are.
Summer arts camps run Monday through Thursday, 12:30-4pm throughout the month of July. To register a student in a camp, please call our front desk at 612-827-1641.
Next week's theme is "All About Me". We will use art to explore ourselves and our worlds, and make art that only each of us can make. Whether through film or photography, music or stories, we will each finish the week having a deeper understanding of who we are.
Summer arts camps run Monday through Thursday, 12:30-4pm throughout the month of July. To register a student in a camp, please call our front desk at 612-827-1641.
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