July 8, 2009 - August 19, 2009
Expanding The BoxSouthern Exposure’s 14th Annual Mission Voices Summer (MVS)
Opening/Final Event Grito de la Mision Celebration: Wednesday, August 19, 5:00 -7:30 pm
Program Dates: July 8 – August 19, 2009
Lead Artists: Rodney Ewing, Nicole Lattuca and Ariel Roman.
Artist Assistants: Nina Rosenberg-Reyes, Iris Charabi-Berggren, and Katherin Canton
Youth Leaders: Nathaniel Francis, Benito Rodriguez and Karla Ocampo
Youth Participants: David Allston, Tanya Archuleta, Beatriz Avendano, Kathryn Byrd, Lorenzo Campbell, Curt Demafeliz, Nathaniel Francis, Carlos Gomez, Angela Hernandez, Norberto Hernandez, Jessica Henriquez, Jazztina Lopez, Alejandro Mis-Cavieh, Rebecca Michelson, Karla Ocampo, Byron Ramos, Kristine Reyes, Kimberly Reyes, Stephanie Rivera, Mario R. Rivera, Benito Rodriguez, Winnie Wu, and Eric Xu, and more...
Collaborator Partners: Jewish Vocational Services (JVS), Mayor's Youth Employment Education Program (MYEEP) and Bridges From School to Work.
Program Manager: Tara Foley
MVS Intern and Photographer: Constance Smith
Southern Exposure’s Mission Voices Summer (MVS) is a summer arts program that gives youth the opportunity to exercise leadership skills and participate in their community by exploring relevant social and personal issues through visual arts workshops. The program focuses on arts-based community development by pairing local artists with teens through an intensive summer program. MVS teaches youth to use the visual arts as a tool to express their creative voices and to make a visual statement about their ideas, interests, and ambitions through a series of workshops that result in an exhibition presented to the community.
This year's Mission Voices theme, Expanding The Box, juxtaposes the idea of the box as both a confining space and a space that is open and full of potential. The box acts as a void which functions to join the discrepancy between the world that we find ourselves in and the world that accurately represents who we are. Throughout the summer, three collaborative projects guide learning and making including a series of performance art workshops focusing on personal narratives taught by Nicole Lattuca. Rodney Ewing works with MVS students to examine self-definition through the 10 Card, or background check, using the basic information such as age, physical statistics, and fingerprints. Ariel Roman guides students through depictions of traditional and non-traditional landscapes. Expanding The Box explores self-representation and identity in comparison to abstract or ridged representation by looking outside and inside the box.
