Jun 283 min read

Join AYB Summer Session 2024!!!

Updated: Jun 28

Sign up for AYB Summer Session 2024 on Sunday, June 30 5-6pm by following the link on our home page!

The program is free and open to folks of all ages. We will work in a variety of mediums as we usher in the AYB Year of Literacy. Sessions are held at our studio space at BWAC in Red Hook Brooklyn from 12:30-3:30pm, unless otherwise noted in the schedule.

Detailed schedule with date, teaching artist(s) and lesson description:

Mon. Jul. 8: Evelyn Beliveau: Water based Oil Painting (text in painting)
Tues. Jul. 9: Evelyn Beliveau: Water based Oil Painting (text in painting)
Wed. Jul. 10: Evelyn Beliveau: Water based Oil Painting (text in painting)
Thurs. Jul. 11: Liv Collins & Jules Lorenzo: Envisioning Lyrics & live music

Mon. Jul. 15: Evelyn Beliveau: Water based Oil Painting (text in painting)
Tues. Jul. 16: Dede Lovelace: Skateboard Design & Board Painting (section 1)
Wed. Jul. 17: Dede Lovelace: Skateboard Design & Board Painting (section 2)
Thurs. Jul. 18: Dede Lovelace: Skateboard Block Party & sketching. Outdoor site TBD

Mon. Jul. 22: Reg Lewis: Language in the style of Faith Ringgold’s political poster series
Tues. Jul. 23: Jacob Rath: The Ox and The House, the origin of our alphabet
Wed. Jul. 24: Meridith McNeal: Painting Text in Watercolor
Thur. Jul. 25: Field trip Governors Island: Studio visits with Mildred Beltré & Jodie Lyn-Kee Chow, & celebratory picnic

Classes are free and open to the public and materials are included. To make this possible we have created a GoFundMe campaign and a supply list on Amazon. We truly appreciate your contributions!!!!

So far on GoFundMe we have raised $2,622, which is 17.48% of our goal.

Several people have donated through our Amazon supply list and we encourage you to help us complete the list. We particularly need the supplies for our oil paintings sessions with Evelyn Beliveau which start the program!

Gift notices and supplies near my front door:

We are thrilled to announce our Summer Session 2024 Interns are Ailey Haynes, Marley Haynes, and TJ Edgar! This stellar team and I will be headed to our studio at BWAC the Friday before the program starts to deliver supplies and organize materials.

Special thanks to AYB Artist Taylor Branch for her work organizing the schedule and registration forms!!

Other Art News

Congratulations to ART YARD BKLYN high school graduates: Sigrid Dolan, Chloe Kaas, and Akash Wilmot!!! Graduation ceremonies were today. Here they are with their proud mothers!

Mildred, Sigrid, Chloe and Jen (left), and Akash and Reshonah (right)

I just read Michael Fallon's Creating The Future: Art & Los Angeles in the 1970's. I am under-informed on west coast artists, and loved learning about so many new-to-me artists! It was also very great to read about the deeply talented and dedicated artists promoting second-wave Feminism and the vibrant Chicano Public Mural programs that were developed and the flourished during this time.

As a non-driving New Yorker, car culture often comes as a big surprise to me. The deeply resonant effects of Low Rider culture, not only in aesthetic but in materiality is fascinating. Fallon also delves into the initially subversive visual culture of surfing and skateboarding, in particular centered in Dogtown (Santa Monica, CA).

Anticipating Dede’s skateboard lessons for Summer Session, I took a bit of a trajectory to watch the documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys. Beautifully captured in the photographs of Craig Stecyk, the athleticism and grace of the young surfer/skaters of the Zephyr team is awesome to watch. The same folks interviewed as adults are articulate and compelling. Wow, those surfboards painted by Jeff Ho, co-owner of Zephyr Productions are just stunning!