• MIM visits NJ schools with support from Young Audiences March 6, 2013

  The MIM van will be conducting workshops at Various NJ schools from March-June.
  Stay tuned for more details and videos from the students!

  Philipsburg Middle School February-March, featured afterschool program
  Grace Dunn Middle School, Trenton, March 7th, visiting 6th-7th grade classes
  Wolf Hill Elementary School, Oceanport, June 5-6, visiting elementary school classes
  

• Decarcerate PA videos! November 5, 2012

  
  On Saturday Nov 3rd I facilitated a workshop with organizers from Decarcerate PA, including 3 members of YASP (Youth Arts Self Empowerment Project), a coalition organization which campaigns to overturn Act 33, which tries juveniles as adults in PA. Decarcerate PA is a grassroots campaign working to end mass incarceration in Pennsylvania. This is a small sampling of the work produced, and just the start to more creative campaign videos.
  Decarcerate PA:
  
  Videos from Members of Youth Arts Self Empowerment Project:
  
  This is for you Governor Corbett:
  

• Messages in Motion at the Ever Never Night Market September 22, 2012

  The Ever Never Night Market was a popup carnaval that took place on Saturday Sept 22 at the Little Berlin Fairgrounds in Kensington. I invited people in to the van to record a message to some in the future. I recorded 15 messages that are being sent out over the next 6 months. Some of the messages were public, others were sent privately. Here is a rave review from a group of neighborhood kids who had a blast!
  

• MIM to Start Workshops in collaboration with Street Movies / Scribe Video Center July 16, 2012

  In an exciting partnership with Scribe Video Center, Messages in Motion will be working with 6-8 community groups prior to Street Movies to facilitate video workshops with community groups so that they can produce their own short videos to be shown alongside the Street Movies short films.  Stay tuned as workshops have gotten underway and videos will start to be uploaded within the next few weeks

• Last week in Buffalo... June 14, 2012

  Tomorrow will wrap 5 weeks in Buffalo.

  A whirlwind, of 10 workshops and 12 great videos produced.

  From our workshops with the teens at Seneca Babcock we produced a collaborative video over the last 2 sessions…  One of the students suggested the theme of exploring the lack of opportunities for teens in the neighborhood, and they took it from there…
  

  The public workshop at Squeaky Wheel was also a great success. 10 participants in attendance, many of them came prepared with interesting ideas of places they wanted to document… This workshop deviated from the ‘video postcard’ structure a little bit, and a few people took it in a new direction! These videos are also part of an interactive documentary project titled, Present Spaces, Future Places that will be available online shortly at: http://www.crackingopen.org/futureplaces

  You can view all the Buffalo videos on Youtube, organized by Playlist:

• New Videos from Starlight Studio artists June 2, 2012

  My first stop in Buffalo was at the Starlight Studio and Art Gallery. As part of my residency at Squeaky Wheel, we had coordinated in advance with Starlight to organize 4 2-hr workshops. We worked with a group of 6 adults, none of whom had ever produced a video before, but are all really talented visual artists. With the assistance from Maggie and Dave from Starlight, and Goda from Squeaky Wheel, we led the group through a number of filming, interviewing, storytelling and story boarding activities. In terms of how this place connected to the larger theme of my project here in Buffalo, Present Spaces, Future Places, it became apparent after the first day that Starlight is an important safe space for these artists.  It’s a place where people feel comfortable expressing themselves and exploring their creative voice. They form strong friendships with one another and the staff who are there to support them in their work. Here are the final videos participants produced:

  The World of My Imaginations
  

  Masterpieces of Shapes by Shirley French
  

   

  Cowgirl Creations by Angela Robb
  

   

  Doll Show by Mathew Sharp
  

  Poetry 101
  

• Messages in Motion arrives in Buffalo May 17, 2012

  The MIM Van arrived in Buffalo on Sunday night. I will be staying until June 15th, as an artist in residence at Squeaky Wheel.

  Under the general theme of “Present spaces, future spaces,” I’ll be exploring creative uses of underutilized  public and vacant spaces. These photos are actually not at all representative of the landscape here in Buffalo… There is quite a diversity of architecture, green spaces, vacant spaces, commercial areas, waterfront, etc…  Last night, for example, I attended a presentation on Pop Up parks. One will be happening on June 9th and I look forward to documenting this creative use of recycled materials and vacant parcels.  Lots of great energy and activity in the city, and I look forward to getting to know the people and their places!

  

• Final Videos from Casa Monarca May 1, 2012

  This is a series of 5 videos that was produced by adults at Casa Monarca. This group worked together over 5 weeks to  write a script, storyboard, film and edit their videos.

  This series of workshops culminated in a community screening on April 28th. We had a nice audience, and even filmmed a few more video messages on the spot!

  They are currently all in Spanish…

• MIM Visits Emerging Artists Creativity Hub April 29, 2012

  Stop Racism:
  

  Yesterday was a very full and productive day with 8  students at the Emerging Artists Creativity Hub, a project of Young Audiences at the College of New Jersey.

  EACH says:  “Our goal is to provide young artists, ages 13-17, with study and work experience in the arts far beyond the typical high school curriculum. So far, students have had the opportunity to use a wide range of arts media and have worked with a number of professional artists. These bright and dedicated young artists, from locations throughout New Jersey, including Trenton, Princeton and Elizabeth, come each week with a desire to explore other art forms, to go beyond their comfort zone, to create and to collaborate with their peers.”

  We decided the theme for this workshop would be ‘Personal PSA’s” Each student came up with an idea or message that was important to them and created a storyboard and worked in pairs to shoot their videos. I sat with each student for 15 mins to assemble and put the final touches on their videos, and then we watched them all by the end of the day! Themes included: Peer pressure, racism, animal rights, health and identity.

  Here are the videos that we produced:

  Lying
  
   
  Take Care:
  
   
  Family:
  
   
  Peer Pressure:
  
   
  Respect Our Animals
  
   
  Be Your Own Person:
  

• MIM installation on display at the Painted Bride April 7, 2012

    Last night  the Reciprocity show opened at the Painted Bride. This show was curated by Pepon Osorio and features work by  7 artists whose projects explore   themes of give and take. I was excited to participate in this show, and it gave me an opportunity to recurate some of the existing MIM documentation and work, as well as create new videos, and finally present the ‘analog’ postcards that I created a few months back.  I selected 6 videos that I felt had particularly strong messages and I transcribed them onto the back of the postcard (where you would typically write your message). The front of the card has screen grabs from the video.  In addition to these cards, I created some blank ones which people can design and send or leave on the rack.

  I selected a few videos to loop based on the theme… It was a fun process to curate such diverse material, but I think it’s actually a great representation of the MIM archive. I also had the opportunity to work with 2 students from Tyler School of Art, who are taking a community art class, to create 2 new videos based on this theme… I think they both took distinct approaches and brought some new visual ideas and reflections to the theme.

  There will be a second ‘opening’ on May 4th and the show closed in early June.

  Hope you can make it out, and send someone a postcard to let them know you are thinking about them! Read the full show details here.

   

  InterROWaction by Stephanie:
  

  Homebound Exchange by Jay:
  

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