Join The Art Effect at the Trolley Barn Gallery (489 Main Street) or virtually via Zoom on Tuesday, August 29, for a day of professional development in preparation for the Poughkeepsie Public Library District’s 2023 Big Read. We will discuss how to center human stories in the study of history, how educators can use historical creative non-fiction to engage present-day students, and how to connect historical texts to students’ lives in relevant, meaningful ways.
In this hybrid day of professional development, educators will gain background knowledge and culturally-informed context for teaching this year’s Big Read: The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. Educators will learn concrete curricular resources and strategies for student engagement, as well as practice facilitating generative writing and multimedia assessment projects to help students identify central themes in the text and draw parallels between historical stories and the present day.
By the end of the professional development session, all participants will be able to:
Understand and teach historical narratives as constructs embedding a specific point of view
Lead students to apply critical thinking skills to ethical dilemmas, using The Boys in the Boat and US participation in the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany as an example
Understand the political experiences of people with marginalized identities negotiating life outside of dominant social groups
Understand background knowledge about the Poughkeepsie Championship Regatta’s importance to the cultural and economic development of the Hudson River Valley
Provide generative writing prompts around The Boys in the Boat
Identify ekphrasis as a literary device, and generate original ekphrastic poems
Assign filmmaking as a multimodal assessment enabling diverse learners to demonstrate learning and perform understanding
Location: Hybrid event; in-person at the Trolley Barn Gallery, Main Street, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 or virtual via Zoom
Provider: Poughkeepsie Public Library District Big Read
All participants will receive a copy of The Boys in the Boat free of charge. There is no fee to attend this workshop. Breakfast and lunch will be provided.
*Documentation verifying teacher attendance will be provided to registrants who have prior in-service approval from their home districts.*
AGENDA
8:00 – 8:30am: Coffee & Breakfast 8:30 – 8:45am: Welcome & Opening Remarks 8:45- 9:45am: Keynote: Whose History? Whose Story? Shaping the ‘Historical’ Record and Listening to Black Voices of the Hudson River by Bill Jeffway, Celebrating the African Spirit/Dutchess County Historical Society 9:45 – 10:00am: Q&A for Keynote 10:00 – 10:15am: Coffee/Bathroom Break 10:15 – 10:50am:Teaching Holocaust-Related Literature: An Introduction and Resources for Teachers by Jeffrey Urbin, Education Specialist at the Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum of Dutchess County 10:50 – 11:30am: Rowing On The River: A Brief History of the Poughkeepsie Regatta by Elizabeth Clarke and Ann Sandri, authors of The Poughkeepsie Regatta 11:30 – 12:30pm: LUNCH 12:30 – 2:30pm: Concurrent breakout sessions:
Session 1 (in-person): “Multimedia Storytelling as Assessment” Workshop by The Art Effect
Session 2 (virtual): Engaging Learners Through Modes of Imagery and Writing From The Senses, with The Ekphrastic Writer
2:30 – 3:00pm: Closing Remarks and Feedback Survey
The Big Read is an annual ‘community read program’ coordinated by the Poughkeepsie Library District. It will run across the fall months of 2023, and is designed to broaden our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book.
Posted December 19th, 2022 — Filed under News, Residencies
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The Art Effect and Poughkeepsie Public Library collaborated in this year’s 2022 Big Read workshops at Poughkeepsie High School and local libraries. 97 participants read the book selected for 2022: Little Monsters by Kelly Link. Painting, animation, and stop motion workshops inspired by the book took place at Poughkeepsie High School, as well as the Straatsburg and Millbrook libraries. Synthesizing literary analysis, media arts, and social-emotional learning, residency participants explored the book’s themes, as well as their own thoughts and responses, through visual mediums. Learn more about residencies with The Art Effect here.
Students at Poughkeepsie High School completed a project called “Animating Monster Metaphors.” They read the short story The Cinderella Game and discussed the use of monsters as a metaphor for emotions that can be difficult to talk about. Over the course of the eight-day residency, students designed “monster” characters based on their own fears, anxieties, and emotions, then scripted, animated, and edited narrative shorts on the subject. Some shorts featured completely digital imagery, while others utilized collage or drawing techniques. But in each finished product, students confronted and ultimately overcame their emotional “monsters”.
Patrons practice abstract painting techniques at Straatsburg Library.
At the Big Read workshop at Straatsburg Library patrons of all ages selected passages from the short stories “The Wrong Grace”, “The Faery Handbag”, and “The Specialist’s Hat”. Theythen depicted the moods and tones of these stories on paper with acrylic paint. Participants learned mark-making, color-mixing, and the use of abstract techniques to capture deep emotions. One participant commented, “{This workshop} encouraged creativity and stimulated imagination by giving tools to create without overwhelming people, and created a comfortable environment.”
Another workshop took place on November 9th at Millbrook Library, where Pretty Monsters stimulated conversation among patrons about how monsters can be metaphors for everyday problems and issues. Workshop participants collaborated on a stop-motion animated short about a problem everyone faces– fear of judgment. In a single session, they visually represented this fear and imagined a narrative about it– going through all steps of the stop-motion filmmaking process, from concept to execution to post-production. Teen Program Coordinator Risa Pomersiig said, “Thank you so much for running the Big Read program… It was informative and fun… a really wonderful experience.”
View the finished animation Eyes of Judgment here!
Posted February 25th, 2022 — Filed under Residencies
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In the MVP (Music Video Production) Program, you’ll learn how to create an original song and produce a music video! You’ll learn lyric writing, song recording, sound mixing, filming, video editing, on-set etiquette and all-around production skills.
This program will take place on Mondays after school in The Art Effect Media Lab at Poughkeepsie High School (through the dance studio, across the hall from the cafeteria)
Posted December 31st, 2021 — Filed under Residencies
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How can words and pictures come together to help us tell our stories? As part of the Poughkeepsie Public Library District’s Big Read, fourth grade students in Ms. Shereen Cader’s class at Warring Elementary School tackled this question head-on through a residency project called PhotoStory Portraiture conducted in partnership with The Art Effect.
In this residency, which was based on Rachel Neumann’s edited collection I Am Home (one of this year’s Big Read mentor texts), students learned about the genre of memoir, and then wrote mini-memoirs expressing their thoughts and feelings about what “home” means to them. Students then learned about how image composition can help tell a story, and chose specific shots, angles, and framing for their portraits, to finally use professional photography and lighting equipment to stage and capture photographic portraits to accompany their writing. Through the tools of memoir and photo portraiture, these students took control of telling their stories.
Their work is on display at the Boardman Road Branch Library (141 Boardman Rd POK NY 12603) through the end of 2021.
Posted December 31st, 2021 — Filed under Residencies
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The Art Effect conducted a series of library workshops, teacher trainings, and in-school residencies as part of the Poughkeepsie Public Library District’s 2021 Big Read program. Each workshop revolves around generating, gathering, and celebrating community stories.
A Different Pond, by Bao Phi
Poughkeepsie Public Library District
Create Your own Comic Book/Graphic Novel In this workshop, library patrons learned how to capture an autobiographical moment in the visual/sequential medium by creating their own graphic novel/comic book from start to finish. This workshop covered sequential storytelling as well as how to sketch, ink, and color their comics.
Staatsburg Library
Podcast and Radio Production For tween-teens | VIRTUAL. In this workshop, teens learned the art of audio production and sound design to produce their own mini-podcast telling their family’s story. Finished pieces air on Radio Uprising, the Art Effect’s youth-produced radio show, which airs every Thursday from 4pm – 5pm on 91.3fm WVKR Independent Radio.
Watercolors for Adults Inspired by Thi Bui’s watercolor illustrations in the graphic novel The Best We Could Do, adults in this virtual workshop generated short memoirs and then learned the art of watercolor to create three-panel watercolor illustrations to accompany their anecdotes.
Poughkeepsie High School
“My America Is” Video Poems After completing the in-school unit on immigration and the Big Read featured book The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui, students work in groups to compile each written “I Am America” poem and write/produce a film script to create video poems about what being an American means.
Warring Elementary School
Photography and Memoir Writing In this residency based on I Am Home, elementary students wrote mini-memoirs expressing their thoughts and feelings about what “home” means to them, then learned professional photography and lighting techniques to stage and capture photographic portraits to illustrate and accompany their writing.
Posted December 31st, 2021 — Filed under Residencies
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Media Arts Residency Offerings
Animated Learning Students use stop-motion animation to collaborate on an animated narrative or expository short. Students learn different techniques using various materials to create the story, backgrounds, characters, and movements. Students also learn editing in Adobe Premiere to incorporate voice recordings, music, and sound effects.
Art of Music Videos Students will get a chance to pick a song to create their own music video. Students will also critique their favorite music videos to help them identify criteria for what makes an interesting and visually appealing music video. They will learn multi-media production to be able to incorporate animations, special effects, and narrative storylines to make their music videos unique to them.
Cinematic Adaptation Students learn to translate textual literacy into visual literacy to use the tools of cinematography to script, film, and edit a cinematic adaptation of a source text, with the challenge of retaining the theme/tone/central conflict of the original source but updating the time period and circumstances to reflect students’ lives and interests, as well as altering the conclusion to become more hopeful than the original.
Counter-Advertisements Students use basic media literacy principles to decode advertisements. They then create counter-advertisements, or parodies of advertisements, that deliver more truthful or constructive messages using the same persuasion techniques as real ads. This workshop can be offered either in print media, radio, or video formats.
Visual Arts Residency Offerings
Sketching and Drawing 101 Sharpen your drawing skills! Learn how to create a sketch that captures a fleeting moment, focusing on the lines and movement of what you are looking to draw, then learn how to add light and shadow to bring depth to your drawing.
Watercolor Painting Explore various watercoloring techniques as you blend colors and let your imagination run free, creating colorful flowers and fantastic landscapes.
Acrylic/Tempera Painting With Red, Yellow, and Blue you can make any color you want to! Learn about primary and complementary colors through color mixing as you create fun abstract paintings. Sponges, tape, utensils and more will be available to create unique patterns and designs.
Oil Pastels Explore different pastel techniques to create a world of summertime fun. Learn the art of composition as you create an image that captures your idea what makes summer such a special time of year.
