It is my pleasure to present to you:
--------------------------------------------------------------The Artists for Social Change Dispatch!
--------------------------------------------------------------For the month of January 2006 (Volume 2.1):
In this Issue:
1 -> Commons Art Gallery!
2 -> Spring Edition: Involvement Fest
3 -> Check it out: Events & Activities
4 -> Meeting Times
5 -> Closing Remarks
--------------------------------------------------------------** 1. Dispatch 2.1: Commons Art Gallery! **
--------------------------------------------------------------Thanks to the tireless work of Ruth Bowler and Shannon Young, the gallery is up! Check out the
Commons’ Gallery on Upper Main which showcases our Baltimore exhibit!
The gallery focuses on the societal ills of arson, pollution, crime, burglary, ineffectual primary
education, child abuse, and homelessness.
Be sure to read each caption as they provide you with information about who to contact in order
to do your part to combat the issues presented.
Also, please take one of the flyers that lists and provides contact information for the many
homeless shelters in Maryland. They need your help! You can be of great assistance by
fundraising, donating food once a month (or more often), or volunteering by doing light labor
such as raking leaves for a shelter near you.
--------------------------------------------------------------** 2. Spring Edition: Involvement Fest **
--------------------------------------------------------------On the Commons’ Main Street, the Office of Student Life will be sponsoring the Spring 2006
Involvement Fest.
Since ASC is a service organization, we will be telling UMBC students about our organization
and how they can get involved on Tuesday, February 7 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. If any of you can
help man the table during any part of this time period, please contact Bukola at
oluboje1@umbc.edu. Thank you.
--------------------------------------------------------------** 3. Check it out: Events & Activities **
--------------------------------------------------------------Art Workshops
Keep your eyes peeled for the e-mail regarding our weekly art workshops with the Choice
Program* kids. They will most likely be held on Monday evenings.
Upcoming Events
The Creative Alliance in Baltimore will be hosting a two week Arts on Purpose Festival.
UMBC Memorial Event
On Tuesday, May 9, 2006, from 5 to 6 p.m. the Festival will host a “UMBC Memorial Event”.
Mark your calendars now! The event is part of the “Anonymous Requiem 2” gallery which will
include your work. As the name suggests, the exhibit aims to memorialize those that we have
lost through a beautifully orchestrated display of paintings depicting the human soul, candles
underneath them, and walls filled with multimedia art.
The UMBC Percussion Ensemble directed by Tom Goldstein will entertain guests with ten
requiem musical pieces. Afterwards, from 6 – 6:30 p.m. there will be a reception honoring the
contributions of students of UMBC and the Choice Program.
Second Chances
Depending on the number of regular students in our weekly workshops, we will have the youth
create pieces of artwork for AOP’s “Second Chances” gallery.
In this gallery, taking place on Saturday, May 20 from 3 to 5 p.m., the artists will reflect on a time
that they were given a second chance (for any type of experience) and will paint a watercolor
painting. During the workshops, we will teach them about art principles such as perspective, the
color wheel, and drawing the human form. Afterwards they will get a second chance at painting
their picture with their newly acquired knowledge about color and form. The Before and After
paintings will be showcased together to illustrate the beauty of human improvement. The gallery
reminds all of us that we are fortunate that life is full of second chances; we can often improve
our current state, because failure often does not stamp us down permanently.
Perspectives: Community Art as Art
Finally, on May 19, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. AOP will be hosting a symposium tentatively named
“Perspectives: Community Arts as Art”. Peter Bruun has shown interest in co-sponsoring the
event with Artists for Social Change. The event will include a forum featuring leading
community artists of Baltimore as they speak about their experiences and how they feel
community art is related to/differs from “Art” as seen in professional, polished exhibits.
We will further discuss each of these events at our upcoming meeting in early February.
--------------------------------------------------------------** 4. Meeting Times **
--------------------------------------------------------------The tentative times for our meetings will be 4:00 p.m. on Mondays. The location and the date of
our first meeting will be sent shortly via the UMBC listproc.
--------------------------------------------------------------** 5. Closing Remarks **
--------------------------------------------------------------I wish you all a happy, productive semester. Study hard but be sure to make time for the
essentials: sleeping, expressing yourself, and eating!
Peace,
Hasina
_____________________________
*For more information about the Choice Program, check out:
http://www.choiceprograms.org/
To be added to the listproc, send an e-mail to listproc@umbc.edu with “subscribe
ARTISTS” in the body of the message.