Monday, May 31, 2010

Bronx Pro and DreamYard: Bronx Blooms Paint Day, May 15




On May 15th DreamYard and Bronx Pro held the Bronx Blooms Mural Community Paint Day in Morrisania with over eighty people in attendance coming out to enjoy! It was a fun-filled day full of paint, hoola-hoops, sidewalk chalk, music and a delicious bbq.

Bronx Blooms has been commissioned by Bronx Pro. DreamYard's BAC members have designed the mural, and community members helped paint it! For more details about the mural, click here and here.

We'd like to thank everyone that came out on the 15th to paint! And a huge shout out to the Bronx Pro team for building the giant circles!

Completion of Bronx Blooms is slated for September with a celebration scheduled for the Fall, 2010. We hope to see you then!

Here are more pics from the community paint day, enjoy!

Getting Started!


Say cheese!


The paint team discusses colors


That's a lot of people painting!


Almost time for BBQ



The BX Pro Crew


All done! Time to clean up...



Saturday, April 17, 2010

Bronx Blooms Mural Pitch

Bronx Blooms Mural Design


"The Morrisania community is in transformation. We are seeing a revitalization here and want to show that this place is a great place to live. Art is a healing factor in an environment. Murals should invite people to live here, and unite the community. Murals visually stimulate and are powerful, they support a transformation within a community. This is just the beginning, an anchor." - Peter Magistro

Today BAC pitched the mural design to Peter Magistro from Bronx Pro. We asked the question: Why are murals powerful and how can a mural support in transforming a community? Some of the responses included:

  • Murals create dialogue between members of a community
  • Murals are powerful because they make art accessible to everyone
  • Murals provide visual aesthetics for a community and provide powerful images that inspire
  • Murals support in transforming a community because the entire community will be striving towards a common goal
For this mural, Bronx Blooms, BAC designed giant flowers with central themes about "what's great about the Bronx" inside them. The flowers symbolize new beginnings, rebirth and growth. Historically murals symbolize transformation in neighborhoods. Because they are known to make a change. Our goal is to give hope and inspiration for the people living here. Here are some examples of the central scenes:


Rone Graves, Bronx River


Diana Perea, Botanical Gardens



Edwin Velasquez, The Beat of the Bronx


Stay tuned for more information about the mural in upcoming weeks!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

DreamYard and Bronx Pro Mural Project

Bronx Blooms Mural Project Sketch-up

Site of Bronx Blooms mural


DreamYard and Bronx Pro have partnered to make a mural titled Bronx Blooms celebrating the Bronx and OSP's core values. The wall is located behind DreamYard's new art center in the Morrisania neighborhood. The goal of the mural is to create peace and serenity, Diana explains "we want people to feel tranquil when they look at it." Combining giant 3D flowers with Bronx based imagery we hope the mural will "transform the drab cinder block wall into something energetic and colorful" says Christopher." DreamYard's core values are Voice, Culture and Justice.

Since we could not paint directly on to the wall, we began to brainstorm ideas using shapes cut out of MDO plywood. The idea of painting giant flowers came from a sketch by BAC participant, Kevin. We then started sketching out central themes into the core of the flowers, some of these include vacant abandoned lots transitioning into something beautiful and the Bronx River. Kevin states "I don't want to make a cliche message that everyone has already seen before, but something special and that people can connect to."


Bronx Blooms Mural Project Schematic

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Opening Night of miniMAX


On a beautiful and sunny Thursday evening, the proud parents and young DreamYard artists gathered at the Bronx Museum of the Arts for the official opening of miniMAX.

This year, BAC participants curated a variety of art from all over the Bronx. Some of the curated themes for the show included: Dark and Stormy, Geometric, Faces and Animation. On opening night, the energy was amazing! As people walked around the exhibit, you could see that they were lost in thought, examining and interpreting all the pieces.

After an hour into the night, we had speeches giving thanks to all that had come out and participated. We also heard statements given by some of the young artists and handed out awards. One of the most memorable moments of the evening was seeing our guest artist, Skowman Hastanan receive a gift from Narelyn Camacho, a BAC member. All in all, the miniMAX show was a success!

(Photo's of opening night coming soon)

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Family Workshops at The Bronx Museum of the Arts


As part of the miniMAX show the BAC participants led a family art making workshop. It was a big hit, and also a great opportunity for parents and children alike to get creative and see the show. But I have to say, the children were the real stars of the day. They made many beautiful pieces out of their imagination. It's a great joy to know that people so young could be so interested in art. I feel that BAC is truly bringing out the Da Vinci in everyone!





Saturday, March 27, 2010

Making miniMAX





Hi everyone! This is a behind the scenes look at miniMAX in the making (before and after). Here the BAC crew is hard at work framing and shipping the art.

Putting up the exhibit was a whole other challenge. After unpacking, we laid all the artwork on to the floor and decided how to arrange and hang the pieces. This was a much harder job than seemed. Here's a video during installation -

http://sharing.theflip.com/session/aee8d03f43fa2485740194b51683ad1e/video/11638952

BAC participant Kevin Boadu stated: " This program has given us many skills that weren't in the fine print, so to speak. The framed artwork couldn't just be placed onto the wall, this would create an uneven, unattractive exhibition. The length and width of the frames were taken into account, as were the dimensions of the wall. Then the height of each frame had to be marked where it would be on the wall. If the measurements were not constant, the exhibit might not have been as enticing and balanced."

Here's a look at the final installation:






Saturday, March 6, 2010

BAC Curates "miniMAX" at The Bronx Museum of Art


Hi Everyone! It's been some busy times for the BAC crew here at the art center. We're in the process of curating and planning the upcoming annual DreamYard art exhibition. This year the show will be titled miniMAX! It will be a show for all ages. Be sure to check it out at the Bronx Museum of the Arts from March 17- 20. We're going to have some fun stuff in store for you, including a family workshop!

Speaking of workshops, we had a great curatorial workshop a couple weeks ago with Susana Leval. She gave us helpful pointers on the process of curating, and provided us with useful knowledge on the subject. We discussed how the job of a curator involves being a caretaker for the artwork, and it is our priority to ensure that the work makes it to the Bronx Museum safely. And that each piece is shown in their strongest light once it is installed in the space. She led the workshop asking each of us to bring in an object we valued and thought was beautiful. We all spoke about why our object was important to us, and then we began to find threads in all of our stories, and grouped them into categories.

After the curatorial workshop, we juried the show and discussed the curatorial themes emerging from the artwork. We have seven curated themes for the miniMAX show, these are: Animation, Geometric, Dark & Stormy, The Personal, Faces, Cultural Symbolic, and Food & Nature.

Here's a sneak peak of some of the artworks you will see in miniMAX:




miniMAX will be open to the public March 17 - 20, 2010

March 17 - 19 hours are: 11am - 6pm
An Opening celebrating the artists will be held on the 18th from 5:30 - 7:30PM
March 20 the show will be open from 11:00am - 3:00 with family workshops being given during those hours

The Bronx Museum of the Arts is located at 1040 Grand Concourse at 165th Street.

Directions

Train
D OR B TRAINS to the 167 STREET/GRAND CONCOURSE STATION. Exit at rear of station,
walk south along Grand Concourse two blocks.

PLEASE NOTE: D Train stops all times except
rush hours peak direction (6:15 am - 9 am to
Manhattan, 4 pm - 6:45 pm from Manhattan). Take
B Train at 145 St. to 167th St. / Grand Concourse.

4 TRAIN to the 161 STREET/YANKEE STADIUM
STATION. Walk east three blocks to the Grand
Concourse, then, walk north four blocks along
Grand Concourse to 165th St.

Bus
Bx1 or Bx2
to 165th St. and Grand Concourse

BxM4A / BxM4B
Express bus to and from Manhattan

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Curtain Call

Ananse
All screengrabs courtesy of David Flores


This week, the Bronx Acting Ensemble premiered their children's theater production of Ananse, at the DreamYard Art Center. Bronx Art Collective participants made the masks, costumes and set design for the production. Here are highlights of characters in costume.

BAE performed the piece five times to children ages five to eight. Families and friends also attended. BAC participants led a pre-show workshop for neighboring school groups. Children participated in face painting, storytelling, and the creation of noise-makers, as part of the "rain and thunder." The audience was given signals when it was time to use the noisemakers by the actors.

The actors wore handmade costumes and masks designed by BAC participants. Both BAC and BAE shared ideas and collaborated as to how the characters should be portrayed. BAC made masks using plaster and created a mold of each actors face, then designed it to the actor's character. With the costumes, BAC used different types of cloth and chose ones most appropriate for each character.

As for the set, it was made up of a series of projections and silhouettes. Creating a theater in the round, the actors also used 2D painted props cut from cardboard.

All in all, the play was a huge success! Everyone that attended enjoyed it and laughed hard. And we all learned a very valuable lesson - to treat your friends as you would like to be treated.

The end!

On to our next project!!






Saturday, January 23, 2010

Ananse Mask-Making



Greetings! BAC has been busy making masks, costumes and props for BAE's production of Ananse the spider. Here are some pictures of us at work casting actors faces. Curtain call will draw soon!