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...

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!

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

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!

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!!

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!

Ananse Theater Production

This week B.A.C. is working on costumes and masks for the B.A.E. theater production of Ananse the Spider.

Ananse is a character in West African folklore. He is always portrayed as a trickster who uses others to do menial tasks for him. Unfortunately the trickster is usually tricked in the end by his own trick!

Ananse will debut at the DreamYard Art Center the end of January.

Costumes are currently being designed for the different animal characters in this play. These characters include: a Spider, Wart-hog, Lion, Bird and Monkey.

Highlights from The World: As We See It, Know It and Envision It

Naralyn Camacho's Red World viewed by BAC participants

In May DreamYard's BAC participants created their final show of the year titled The World: As We See It, Know It and Envision It, held at the Pregonis in the South Bronx in conjunction with BAE's play titled Is Anybody Listening? The event was proof that the Bronx is alive with talented young artists ready to express themselves and be heard. Celebrating a successful opening night with a packed house, over a hundred people came out to support BAC and BAE.

Here's are highlights of the event in case you missed it....

BAC members Edwin Velazquez and Diana Perea install Diana's series of photographs, the diagram for the installation is below.

Edwin Velazquez: Utopian School Model


BAE performs Is Anybody Listening?