2011 "It's My Life" Art Opening A Beautiful Success!!

This past Saturday our downtown office hosted the opening for the Student Career Alternative Program's 2011 youth arts show. All of the pieces on display in the gallery were submitted by 13-19 year olds for SCAP's 2nd Annual "It's My Life" Youth Arts Contest. The evening featured visual art on display, performances from students who submitted in music, video, and writing, and of course the awards ceremony for the contest. We also enjoyed performances from Dejah Ault and last year's music winner, Iqbal Chowdhury.

Our goal was to create space to showcase some of Atlanta's talented youth, possibly provide some new windows of opportunity, and to get folks really thinking about the themes that inspired each piece.

High school teachers and counselors all over the Atlanta Metro were invited to participate by passing along the contest information to their students. We ended up with submissions from 16 different Atlanta area high schools this year! We also had a great diversity in entries, including writing, visual art, music, and video. Every student who entered received a certificate and a year membership card to Wonderroot Community Arts Center, with access to classes, a studio, a darkroom, an event space, and more.

The contest challenged students to create pieces inspired by one of four themes:

What does militarization take away from your education?

What is your vision of a peaceful and sustainable world?

How can you act for local and global justice?

What are your non-military career paths and dreams?

We had some pretty amazing entries this year! Over the course of the next week or so, look out for photos from the contest on this blog. We'll be working on posting every submission on the blog and website.

Turnout at the event was really great, and I must admit that most of us that do this work on the regular were feeling the warm fuzzies all night after seeing all the kids present their work, the proud look in parents' eyes, and all the smiles from folks that came out to support! The art opening was a reminder to me that there is proof that folks as young as 13 are not only more than capable of developing a deep analysis of the big issues that affect their daily lives, but they're also fully capable of presenting their solutions to the world's problems.

The "It's My Life" youth art exhibit will be up until April 15th. Come by the second floor of 60 Walton Street downtown to check it out. Much of the art is also for sale, with the proceeds going directly to the student-artists. In addition, anyone who would like to is invited to come out to the closing reception Friday April 15th from 6-8pm. Please contact Erica at erica.scap@gmail.com with any questions.

Finally, congratulations to the winners!

Grand Prize Winner ($100cash!): Joan Bedinger, writing
Education Award (Best Response to Theme 1): Aisha Davis, video
Visionary Award (Best Response to Theme 2): Nicolaas Rashad Turner, mixed media
Justice Award (Best Response to Theme 3): Darrin A. Pope, mixed media
Career Award (Best Response to Theme 4): China Burlison, writing
Artistic Technique Award: Saul Palos, mixed media
Originality Award: Amanda Dolan, photography
Changing Hearts and Minds Award: Gloria Johnson, writing
Creative Solutions Award: Midrell Fitzgerald, graphic design
Judges' Choice Award: Clifford Hopgood, music

THANK YOU to the team of graduate students who took photos and footage of the event. They are working on a short but exciting documentary about SCAP's work, which will be featured at a film screening in the next few months. (More info to come!)
THANK YOU to our esteemed panel of judges: Alice Lovelace from AFSC, Dejah Ault representing SCAP, Valerie Love from Sam Flax, and Kuukua Wilson representing Wonderroot Community Arts Center.
THANK YOU to Willy's Mexicana Grill and Grandmothers for Peace for providing food and drinks for the event.
And THANK YOU to all of our sponsors that donated prizes for the event. Because of you, we were able to award 10 artists with individual unique prizes!

Sponsors:
Sam Flax
Wonderroot Community Art Center
All Fired Up
A Cappella Books
Criminal Records
Utrecht
Blick art materials


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

"It's My Life" Art Contest, Huge Success!!!!

We've been promoting the Student Career Alternative's, "It's My Life" contest across the metro area since January with an underlying fear that no submissions would come in.
High School Art and English teachers in Gwinett, Cobb, Fulton, and Dekalb Counties were all invited to participate by passing along the contest information to their students.

The contest challenged students to create art works inspired by one of four themes:
"Young People Acting for Local and Global Change"
"Your Vision of a Peaceful and Sustainable Future"
"Non-Military Career Paths and Dreams"
"Is America Addicted to War? If so, How Does it Affect you?"

There five art mediums that students could submit entries in:
Music
Essays/Short Stories/Poetry
Photography
Graphic Design
Painting/Mixed Media

Prizes promoted were:
1st place in each medium: 12 month membership to WonderRoot Community Art center along with a very special, funded six month mentorship with a successful artist in that medium.
2nd place in each medium was a $50. gift card to Sam Flax art supply store, donated by Sam Flax!!!!

Then there was an over grand prize of $100. cash.

Our Goal was to provide an opportunity to showcase some of Atlanta's talented youth, possibly provide some new windows of opportunity, and to get folk to really think about some of the themes that each piece was to be inspired by.

Well, during the first week of March all of our worries about light submissions evaporated as we were overwhelmed by phone calls by students, parents, and teachers about the contest. We were invited to come out to more high schools to talk about SCAP and the contest then we could cover. It was pretty amazing to be invited to so many schools to talk about SCAP, many remember that it was just last year that it was like pulling teeth to get school faculty to return a phone call from SCAP. Some administrators even laughed us off their campuses. For the first time ever we were in a position to have to turn down invitations to high school due to capacity, clearly an issue we must address.
By March 15th, the contest deadline, we had 63 amazing entries all worthy of being part of our three week, "It's My Life" exhibit at WonderRoot. As we went through all of the entries that came from a dozen different metro area schools it was clear that the judges of the contest were going to have a difficult time picking winners.

Our panel of judges where:
Joey Arbuckle with Sam Flax
Kwajelyn Jackson with WonderRoot
Haley Murphy with Student Career Alternatives
Jo A Peterson, a professor with Savannah College of Art and Design
Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier, renowned painter, photographer, and writer

On Saturday March 20th we held our art opening and awards ceremony at WonderRoot. Turn out was wonderful. We had artists, SCAP members, parents, teachers, students, and other community members come out for the event. One of the highlights was live performances by extremely talented high school students, Aaron Cooper, Iqbal Chandbury, Manuel Allison, and Britnie Valentine.

After performances everyone that entered the contest was given a certificate of participation and invited to get a picture taken next to their art work.

After certificates were given out and pictures were taken Andy Fritz, our emcee for the night, called everyone together and introduced the judges who announced the winners.

Grand Prize
Samara Abdulla- None-military career paths and dreams-Essay.

First Prize
Photography
Lisa Bi – Awakened By Sleepless Nights
Mixed Media
Khris Dixon - Survivors Story
Music
Iqbal Chandbury – One Rhyme
Graphic Design

Michelle Partogi – Peace Starts With Saving One Person
Writing
Wesley Harmon – A Soldier’s Tale

Second Prize
Photography
Courtney Seale - Sacrifice
Mixed Media
Erin Foster – Affected Youth
Music
Aaron Cooper - Fatherless
Graphic Design

Julia Kim – Hello, My Name is Peace
Writing
Manuel Allison – Young People For Local and Global Change

In addition to the 1st,2nd, and grand prize winners WonderRoot extended the offer of a free year long membership to every student that entered the contest!!
We plan to chronicle all of the winners on this blg in the coming weeks so stay tuned.

ALSO!!! Please stop by WonderRoot between now and April 11th to view the art exhibit!!

WonderRoot:
www.wonderroot.org

Sam Flax:
samflaxsouth.com

Student Career Alternatives Program:
scapatl.org


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee