Urban Arts Academy

Artist of the Month (October 2011)

2011-10-06T09:20:00.000-07:00

Artist of the Month-October 2011

Frida Kahlo de Rivera (July 6, 1906-July 13, 1954)

Frida Kahlo is perhaps Mexico's most celebrated artist. Most noted for her self-portraits, she is characterized as a naive artist, a "surrealist", and feminist heroine. In honor of Frida Kahlo, artist of the month, Urban Arts Academy after school program is incorporating the rich history and images of Frida Kahlo in its celebration of Dia de Los Muertos. Guest artists Julie and Gustave Boada are collaborating with Urban Arts After School program creating festive skull puppets with paper mache and other popular Day of the Dead imagery and mediums.

2011-10-06T07:41:00.000-07:00

Urban Arts After School is 'back to school'!

We welcome back guest artists Julie and Gustavo Boada of In The Heart Of The Beast Puppet and Mask Theater. In conjunction with Urban Arts Academy After School program's celebration of Dia de Los Muertos Julie and Gustavo are creating brightly colored paper mache skeleton puppets, humorous skeleton hats and other festive memorabilia for classroom ofrendas (alters)
to commemorate love and the cycle of life.

Summer Camps at Urban Arts Academy

2011-07-13T10:06:00.000-07:00

Summer Camps at Urban Arts Academy Ages: 6-12

We've started our summer out with a bang. We began our summer camps with Mural Madness and Cigar Box Guitars. Then continued with Backpack Creatures and Old Man Dance. We just finished last week with Archaeology class and Graffiti Skateboards. This week we are featuring African Drumming and Duct Tape.

Mural Madness

In Mural Madness we learned about different mural artists and even looked at some murals in the neighborhood. We painted two large murals as a class project and they are on view for the whole school.

Cigar Box Guitars

In Cigar Box Guitar class we learned how to make our own guitars out of simple materials. We learned how to play a few songs on our new guitars and performed for the whole school.

Backpack Creatures

In Backpack Creatures we learned how to make life size puppets/costumes. We had a monkey, a monster, a dragon, an eagle, and a wolf. We created our creatures out of paper mache, wood, nails, screws, paint, and fabric. We performed a short play for the whole school.

Old Man Dance

In Old Man Dance we made old man
masks, ponchos, canes, and learned
a dance routine that we performed for the whole school.

Archaeology

In Archaeology class we mummified barbies, dug in the dirt, found fossils, had an excavation for lost items. We got really dirty and made a big mess.

Graffiti Skateboards

In Graffiti Skateboards we learned
about different graffiti artists and
tagged our own skateboards and tested them in the park once they dried. I'm sure we'll be pros in no time.

Artist of the Month (May)

2011-05-10T10:09:00.000-07:00

Salvador Dali ( 1904-1989)

Salvador Dali was a Spanish Catalan surrealist and also an expert draftsman. His works consist of film, sculpture and photography. He was known best for his peculiar images in his surrealist works.

Artist of the Month

2011-05-10T10:05:00.000-07:00

Louise Bourgeois (December 1911 – 31 May 2010)

Louise Bourgeois was a French American-Artist and sculptor who is best known for her contributions to modern and contemporary art (Spider Structures). Today she is known as the founder of confessional art.

April at Urban Arts

2011-05-04T08:49:00.001-07:00

April was a busy month at Urban Arts!

Our April artists of the month were Diego Rivera and Jose Orozco. Rivera and Orozco were Mexican painters, and both created many famous murals. To learn about and celebrate thier work, the after school students painted a mural in the preschool classroom. Students were also hard at work painting backdrops for their original play!

This month Urban Arts also took a field trip to Highpoint Center for Printmaking where students were able to make thier own relief prints!

Artists of the month for April

2011-04-07T10:20:00.000-07:00

Artists of the Month for April are Diego Rivera and Jose Orozco!

Video clip

2011-04-07T10:19:00.000-07:00

Artist of the Month

2011-03-08T10:23:00.001-08:00

The artist of the month for March is Andy Warhol (August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987)

Warhol was an American painter, printmaker, filmmaker and one of the most valuable leading figures in the visual art movement. Warhol also led a successful career in commercial illustration. One of his most known works would be his can painting of Campbell’s Soup.

To celebrate the works of Andy Warhol we will create self and pop art portraits as well as recreating the Campbell's Soup illustration, one of Warhol's most famous commercial art paintings.

Artist of the Month

2011-02-01T11:17:00.001-08:00

The artist of the month for February is Hu Shen (1931-)

At a young age Hu Shen learned the local traditional Fengxiang colorful painting in clay figurine art from his father. Hu Shen learned how to use exaggerated techniques of art in his creations for Fengxiang painting which demonstrates and symbolizes a great Chinese spirit.

Cindy Sherman, January's artist of the month

2011-01-05T09:05:00.001-08:00

Cindy Sherman and Sonia Delaney Terk are January's artists of the month

Artist of the Month

2010-12-06T11:09:00.000-08:00

The artist for the month of December is Grandma Moses (1860-1961).

Anna Mary Robertson Moses, better known as "Grandma Moses", was born in Greenwich, New York, on September 7, 1860. Moses is a renowned American folk artist who is best remembered as an individual who successfully began a career in the arts at an advanced age. She had ten children but five died at birth. Although her family and friends called her either "Mother Moses" or "Grandma Moses," she first exhibited as "Mrs. Moses," yet the press eagerly named her "Grandma Moses," which stuck." LIFE magazine celebrated her 100th birthday by featuring her on its September 19, 1960 cover.

Many of Grandma Moses' paintings were used to publicize special American holidays, including Thanksgiving, Christmas and Mother's Day. She regularly portrayed happy scenes of rural home life, sometimes picturing herself as a child. She also painted a number of historical pictures, usually about her ancestors. In some works, the figures are dressed in eighteenth-century costumes, as people might have dressed in the country. Many of her color schemes are fitting to the various seasons: white for winter, light green for spring, deep green for summer, and brown for autumn.

Here are some of her most famous pantings.

"The Old Oaken Bucket"

"Bringing in the Maple Sugar"

"Over the River to Grandma's House"

"Sugaring Off"

Artist of the Month

2010-12-02T13:00:00.000-08:00

The Artist of the Month for October is Paul Klee (1879-1940) and George Seurat (1859-1891) for November.

Paul Klee was a Swiss-German artist. His mother was Swiss and his father was German, and Klee was raised in Switzerland but spent most of his adult life in Germany. He taught at the Bauhaus School of Art and was part of Der Blaue Reiter, the avant-garde circle co-founded by Russian artist Kandinsky. He was Influenced by Cubism and drawn to the expressiveness of primitive art and children's paintings. Klee produced nearly 10,000 works in a variety of media, but is mostly known for his watercolor paintings. Some of his best-known works include; Southern (Tunisian) Gardens (1919), The Twittering Machine (1922) and Fish Magic(1925).

Southern (Tunisian) Gardens

The Twittering Machine

Fish Magic

Check out these photos of our after-school kids making Paul Klee Sugar Cookies:

After-school kids create Paul Klee animals with chalk

Georges Seurat was a neo-impressionist. His technique for portraying the play of light using tiny brushstrokes of contrasting colours became known as Pointillism. He created huge compositions with tiny, detached strokes of pure colour too small to be distinguished when looking at the entire work but making his paintings shimmer with brilliance. Seurat began to" draw at an early age. In 1875, he took a course with sculptor Justin Lequien. Several years later, Seurat enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and studied with Henri Lehmann. Seurat remained at the school for two years, during which time he discovered a book entitled Essai sur les signes inconditionnels de l'art (Essay on the Unmistakable Signs of Art) by Humbert de Superville. This discovery of the relationship between lines and images became the inspiration for Seurat's entire career. When his painting "Une Baignade, Asnieres" was refused by the Salon jury he began exhibiting with the foundation of the Groupe des Artistes Independants, who promoted the development of modern art. One of his most famous works is "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-1886):

A Couple other examples of his paintings:

Afterschool practices pointillism. Check out the new artwork!

2010-11-22T14:46:00.000-08:00

Urban Arts After School Program

lots of activities

2010-10-15T11:02:00.000-07:00

Among other things we have been baking cookies and muffins, gardening! We harvested chilies and we helped to weed, cave art and making our own paint with berries, we have done Paul Klee creatures outside and we have enjoyed the sun!

Introducing...

2010-10-14T14:12:00.000-07:00

Hi UAA friends and families!

Here at Urban Arts Academy, we're lucky to have the support of a diverse group of people who generously volunteer their time to us as interns. Here are a few of them! We'll keep updating this list as more bios and pictures roll in.

My name's Bronwen, and I'm a senior Studio Art Major at Macalester College. Originally from Sacramento, CA, I was drawn to the Twin Cities for it's vibrant culture and emphasis on community. Over the years, I've had a growing interest in how art can be used to bring people together and promote positive change; I've had the opportunity to work as an Arts Director at a residential summer camp, as a Scenic Assistant with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and recently was able to spend a semester in Denmark studying sustainable design. In my spare time I like to bike, make pizzas, and play with poi. I'm excited to work with Urban Arts Academy this semester, and see how an arts non-profit can make a lasting impact.

Greetings! I am Jozette, and I like reading, art, and smiling! I love the art of the past because in school I studied Art History. I really hope to be able to teach some lessons on art history this semester. I am here because I want to learn more about children and helping them unlock their creativity and imagination. I believe all bios should end with at least one random favorite, so here are a few - my favorite color is red, my favorite book is Harry Potter, and my favorite thing to draw with is crayola crayons and markers (a tie).

Hello, my name is Katie. I am an arts education intern at the Urban Arts Academy. I studied studio arts at St. Olaf College and architecture preservation at the University of Minnesota. I have worked with kids as a swim instructor, intern at the Minnesota Children's Museum and as a after school program volunteer at the Phylis Wheatley Community Center. I love learning new things, making art working with children so I am very excited that this internship will allow me to do all of those things. My primary goals for this internship are to learn ways to develop curriculum and programs and of course making lots of fun arts projects with the kids.
I am so excited to be a part of UAA! My name is Jillian; currently, I am a junior at the University of Minnesota getting my bachelor's degree in Global Studies. This past summer I went to Turkey to teach children English. My favorite food is probably sushi and I love Punch Pizza! At UAA I have the Environmental Arts position. I am looking forward to using art to explain environmental education and can't wait to work with everyone!

Hi! I'm Meghan from Mankato, MN. I like biking, reading, painting, and treasure hunting. In the past,

I've volunteered with the Teresa House Homeless Shelter in Mankato. There, I had the pleasure of helping with the after school program by assisting children with homework, art projects, and building a library.

I also helped establish MEISA, Music and Entertainment Industry Student Association, Mankato chapter. Within this club, I helped new students learn how to be successful in their music studies and encouraged members to explore career opportunities within the industry. I'm excited to learn the logistics of non-profit art administration and plan environmental art projects to do with the children. My favorite food is veggie pizza. I also love to bike around the lakes in Minneapolis.

Greetings! My name is Alisa. I am the Environmental Arts Intern with the Urban Arts Academy for the Fall 2010. I am very excited to be a part of an organization that brings art and imagination to the youth of Minneapolis. I have worked with various youth organizations, in urban and wilderness settings, and have always found myself inspired by the questions youth ask of life and how they live out their answers. I am always learning from the younger generation and am glad to be a part of the life-long learning process while I am here at UAA. I am hoping to connect themes of environmentalism and art in the after-school program. I hope to to have the youth create art installations that cultivate a sense of community around our shared concern for the environment. When I am not at UAA, you can find me somewhere around town on my bicycle, reading, writing and exploring Minneapolis.

Hi! My name is Ashley. I graduated from Augsburg College in 2008, with a major in Studio Arts and a minor in Art History. I attended the Arts in Paris Program in France where I enhanced my artistic skills. Ienjoys painting, sketching and cooking. I'm really excited about my internship at Urban Arts where I can work with children on art projects and also learn new skills for my career in the art world.

More to come!

Thanks,

UAA

WELCOME BACK!!!!

2010-09-28T14:32:00.001-07:00

Happy Fall Everyone!!! We hope that everyone had a safe and happy summer and the school year is off to a good start. Urban Arts Academy is very excited to begin October 5th, 2010. Here are few things to bring everyone up-to-date...

October Artist of the Month:

Paul Klee

To kick off the school year, students will be learning about the artist Paul Klee from Switzerland. Klee was inspired by expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Born into a family of musicians, Klee had a love for music that was evident in his artwork. Klee was a teacher at the Bauhaus along with many other famous, creative masters. To the left is one of Klee's most famous oil paintings, Senecio (Paul-Klee.com).

October Book of the Month:

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away ... so she decided not to run FROM somewhere, but TO somewhere. And so, after some careful planning, she and her younger brother, Jamie, escaped -- right into a mystery that made headlines! (Borders.com)

Meet Urban Arts Academy's New Promise Fellows....

This school year, we would like to introduce two new Art Education Specialists to the Urban Arts Academy. Nils Heymann and Sarah Brown are AmeriCorps Promise Fellows serving the Minnesota Alliance with Youth. They will be conducting classes and creating curriculum at Urban Arts while volunteering at Bancroft Elementary School.

Nils Heymann
Hola! My name is Nils and I was born in El Salvador and I've lived in 7 other countries: Guatemala, USA, England, Italy, India, Thailand, and New Zeland. I love traveling, camping, museums, concerts, and I have a really big sweet tooth so tempt me with 3 leches cake or tiramisu any time!

I got my masters degree in art education from the U of MN and I am finishing a leadership degree at the University of St. Thomas. I have spent most of my adult life as a teacher, Buddhist monk, and diversity director. My cat is named after Rothko, the Russian-American artist and my beta fish is Cous Cous after the yummy dish. I am excited to serve at Urban Arts this year as a Promise Fellow of the AmeriCorps Minnesota Alliance with Youth program.

Sarah Brown
Hello Everyone! My name is Sarah Brown and I am extremely excited to be working with the students, staff, and families at Urban Arts Academy. I am new to Minnesota hailing all the way from New Jersey and preparing for my first Minnesota winter!!!

In New Jersey, I studied Art Education at Rowan University. At the university, I spent many hours working on lesson planning, photography, and sculpture. I look forward to an exciting year with all the families and staff!

ICE CREEEAAMMM

2010-07-29T11:45:00.001-07:00

THE ICE CREAM SOCIAL IS TONIGHT! HOPE YA'LL CAN JOIN!

Bancroft Ice Cream Social!!

2010-07-22T13:01:00.000-07:00

"Música, música, en todas partes"

2010-07-12T12:58:00.000-07:00

¡Hola de la semana media del Campamento de Verano! En las dos semanas pasadas, hemos tenido los temas de "Vamos a fingir" y "Mundo del arte," y esta semana tenemos un tema de la música. Por esta semana, los niños separaban en cuatro clases - Tambor africano, Escultura musical, Violín y baile céltico, y Reutilizar cosas para hacer instrumentos. El artista visitante Papa, un músico profesional y plurilingüe, nos enseñó cómo tocar al tambor africano, en un círculo grande en el patio. ¡Qué calor, y no significo sólo el tiempo! Nuestra profesora Fernanda nos instruyó cómo hacer nuestro propio juego de campanas a que tocará el viento. En otra clase una voluntaria nos tocaba alguna música hermosa de su violín, mientras la profesora Niky compartía su experiencia en el baile irlandés tradicional con todos. Y unos alumnos aprendió cómo hacer instrumentos musicales de cosas reutilizadas para una representación que ellos interpretarán el sábado al Midtown Global Market (Mercado Mundial de Centro-Ciudad, situado a la Calle Lake y la Avenida 10º Sur).

Kid Power!

2010-07-05T11:58:00.000-07:00

The summer season here at Urban Arts has started with two weeks of KidPower! Kids went sailing at Lake Calhoun, did scavenger hunts in the park, took a field trip to the library, started a garden here at Urban Arts, fished, cooked, sculpted, photographed, played, read, and had buddy time with their own intern mentor. It was a great way to start the summer! The summer interns and kids got to know each other, and we ended the great two-week session with some water balloon games and ice cream!

Now Summer Arts 2010 has officially begun! There are kids taking classes about dragons, stilt walking, fairytales and fables and they are doing every kind of art.

Northern Lights

2010-04-27T09:29:00.000-07:00

art for kids?

2010-02-03T14:48:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I think we slip in projects just because we as teachers, interns and staff want to do them, hoping for a happy coincidence that the students will like them too. Mittens from old sweaters, cooking class, silhouettes and story-telling... nothing says winter like warm food and knitting. The students have really been loving their fibers class. Today they are finger-knitting, which one might remember from fifth grade: not being able to complete assignments or pay attention with fingers tied up in yarn. They also are finishing their mittens made from old sweaters and are getting ready to work on their next project (we'll keep you posted). Eleanor (a long-time student of ours now a fifth grader) taught her class how to crochet at her own station today. All of this yarn has been donated to us over the last year or so-- it's great to have the kids using it for its original purpose (although they've come up with a lot more uses in the meantime). Click the link on the left or the photo for instructions on how to make your own finger-knitting.

new look

2010-02-02T08:03:00.000-08:00

This blog is getting a(nother) new look. Trying to figure out what information to include and where to put it is a tricky art. Soon we will have links and posts related to the "green" re-use curriculum we've been doing as well as the information we've been collecting that could be useful to our families, and the community. Check back later this week for added content. In the mean time, enjoy the new photo slideshow of Bruce Silcox's latest UAA photos. Thanks Bruce! These photos give us a good reminder of why we work with these young folks.

2009-12-18T13:21:00.000-08:00

...On vacation.
Afterschool starts again January 12th, 2010
Preschool starts again January 6th, 2010
See you in the new year!

Family Night

2009-12-07T08:48:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-07T08:40:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Pizza Luce in Seward for donating pizza to our volunteer and intern appreciation party. YUM!

Give to the Max!

2009-11-18T10:18:00.001-08:00

Thanks everyone who donated yesterday during the Give to the Max!

YouTube Videos Are Up!

2009-11-09T11:49:00.000-08:00

--> see video bar at bottom of page <--

WORMS!

2009-10-21T07:33:00.000-07:00

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.

Chatterbox Kick-Off Event

2009-10-05T10:20:00.000-07:00

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

First week of Afterschool!

2009-09-30T13:39:00.001-07:00

Congratulations and Thanks to all of our incredible staff, interns, volunteers and parents for a great first two days! Bienvenidos!

Earthdance @ Powderhorn Park this Saturday

2009-09-25T14:16:00.000-07:00

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!

Fun Community Event

2009-09-16T09:13:00.000-07:00

38th Street celebration: this Saturday September, 19th 2009.

Beginning Again

2009-09-13T16:35:00.000-07:00

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!)

Urban Arts meets Full Cycle!

2009-08-11T10:04:00.000-07:00

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.

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.

Borders fundraiser voucher

2009-08-03T13:42:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-03T09:49:00.000-07:00

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

Fundraiser with Borders bookstores!

2009-07-27T09:48:00.000-07:00

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.

The World in which We Live

2009-07-27T09:40:00.000-07:00

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!

Pictures!

2009-07-22T12:09:00.000-07:00

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!

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!

Week 4: The Way We Move

2009-07-21T10:09:00.000-07:00

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.

Family Night & Lasagna Dinner

2009-07-20T09:58:00.000-07:00

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!

field trip week!

2009-07-15T08:21:00.000-07:00

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!

messy days are the best days

2009-07-09T09:28:00.000-07:00

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.

all about me

2009-07-07T11:15:00.000-07:00

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!

First Week of Summer Arts Camp

2009-07-02T10:59:00.000-07:00

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.