February 8 – March 31 Tues and Thurs, 2:45 – 4:45*
At the Media Lab — Poughkeepsie High School
The Liberty Media Lab is the newest program offering from The Art Effect’s longstanding relationship with Marist Liberty Partnership Program (MLPP). Liberty Media Lab takes place in The Art Effect’s new media lab space at Poughkeepsie High School, and offers students enrolled in MLPP a chance to creatively express themselves and discover their artistic voices while learning valuable and transferable media production skills. Through hands-on workshops in photography, filmmaking, and digital animation, MLPP students will experiment with technology and create their own original works across multiple media formats.
Donna Mikkelsen, a professional art teacher and long-time teaching artist at The Art Effect. Donna has been teaching arts-based curriculum both in-school and community-based settings for over 25 years. In 2001, she founded the arts-integrated Garden Road School in Westchester County and served as its Director for 11 years. Following that, she became Education Director for the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in Peekskill where she organized In-School Artist Residencies with the local school district including a Docent Training program for high school students. As a teaching artist she has developed AmbiArts workshops for people of all ages. These workshops incorporate the principles of her ambidextrous drawing technique “Spontaneous Symmetry”. This fun process engages both hemispheres of the brain, utilizes kinesthetic learning, calms nerves, and builds teamwork. Donna works with schools, non-profit and community-based organizations throughout the Hudson Valley.
Warring & Clinton 4th and 5th Grades Students at Clinton and Warring were visited by Vassar College students for Black History Month. Each student was given the book “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave written by Himself.” The class learned about Frederick Douglass’ life and the role he played in history and discussed “what does it mean to be Black?”. Each student then designed at least two large watercolor feathers for a collaborative “Wings of Justice” artwork where they illustrated or wrote responses to the following: “Who am I?” “What makes me unique?” “Who will I be as I get older?”
The Art Effect will be at Poughkeepsie High School this fall in the new Media Maker Lab creating a media education resource and classroom focused on providing digital literacy instruction to PHS students and media-related professional development for PHS faculty and staff.
This fall The Art Effect will working in the classroom with the students and faculty in ELA classes to create media texts in dialogue with The Best We Could Do, Thi Bui’s award-winning graphic novel (this year’s selection for the Poughkeepsie Public Library District’s 2021 Big Read).
The Art Effect will also be offering an Animation Lab on Mondays from 3-5pm this fall. PHS youth will have the chance to get animated, mastering various animation techniques including digital animation and stop-motion in this once-a-week after-school program using apps like KomaKoma, Procreate, and Flip-A-Clip. PCSD students can sign up by filling out this form online.
