Franklin Furnace Artists teaching SEQuential ART for KIDS at PS217K, PS20K, and PS185K

All photographs courtesy of Franklin Furnace. [image description: double photograph, on the left a child is making a comic he wears a stripy top in greens, on the right is a comic book library in the form of a box with different handmade comics]

Franklin Furnace received support from the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation this year for its education in schools program. Their commitment to assuming a pedagogical stance with regard to the life enrichment of avant-garde art makes SEQ ART KIDS central to the mission of Franklin Furnace. Artists teaching through the mining multiple intelligence approach each pursue professional careers in the creation of avant-garde, time-based works of art that, for optimal effect, demand live viewing audiences. Their concept-driven works present multiple solutions to complex problems. Teaching artists at PS217K, PS20K, and PS185K in 2016 included: Ken Butler, Louise Diedrich, Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful, Dustin Grella, Naimah Hassan, Ron Littke, Patricia Miranda, Harley Spiller, Mary Suk, and Martha Wilson.

All photographs courtesy of Franklin Furnace. [image description: man plays a japanese stringed instrument dramatically in a room full of different classical and contemporary stringed instruments]

Ken Butler

Ken Butler is an artist and musician whose hybrid musical instruments, performances, and installations explore the interaction of common objects, sounds and silence. His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and performances throughout the USA at The Brooklyn Museum, Lincoln Center, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as in Canada, Europe, South America and Asia. His work has been reviewed in The New York Times, The Village Voice, Artforum, Smithsonian, and Sculpture Magazine. He has also been featured on PBS, CNN, MTV, and NBC, including a live appearance on The Tonight Show. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has several of his handmade instruments in their collection. He was awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He has performed with John Zorn, Laurie Anderson, Butch Morris, The Soldier String Quartet, The Tonight Show Band, and The Master Gnawa musicians of Morocco.

All photographs courtesy of Franklin Furnace. [image description: child from previous photograph is working on his comic with an instructor with blond hair in a classroom environment, a girl in a pink dress stands on the right of the image behind a number of school desks]

Louise Diedrich

SEQ ART KIDS' Website Design instructor Louise Diedrich received her Masters of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts. In 1993, she moved to New York City to work in the Independent Study Program of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her multimedia installations and drawings have been exhibited at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Gavin Brown Enterprises, and Feature Gallery. Louise has worked in New York City schools and after-school programs since 1998, teaching and collaborating with New York City children and youth on a variety of projects including student-created websites for SEQ ART KIDS, and documentary films, animated shorts, comic book autobiographies, ceramic sculpture, and mixed media projects.

All photographs courtesy of Franklin Furnace. [image description: photographic portrait of artist Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful, he wears black heavy rimmed glasses and is in front of a bookcase with a black toy car on one of the shelves]

Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful

Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful’s experiential CITY AS LIVING ORGANISM workshop shows students how to think deeply about ways to improve their home, their block, their neighborhood, and their city. Nicolás’ empathetic pedagogy stems from the vision of Carolyn Pratt, founder of City and Country School, where he also serves as an educator. Students learn to understand the city as a body in and of itself - one they may ultimately shape through creative work. Individual and collaborative projects help students begin to understand the concept of psychological terrain, and conceive of new cartographies for the world around them. Via a combination of poetry, self-portraiture, writing, and experimental media, Nicolás aims to impart that our seemingly static urban landscape is actually malleable. Ultimately, CITY AS LIVING ORGANISM expands children’s conceptual strengths as it prepares them to be active participants in their future.

All photographs courtesy of Franklin Furnace. [image description: double image of a man holding a baseball bat on the left above his shoulder, on the right is a baseball card with text about the score history of Dustin Arthur (Dusty) Grella]

Dustin Grella

Award-winning animator Dustin Grella’s MAKING ANIMATED FILMS workshop guides students through the processes of creating individual and group animated films. Students commence with the basic storytelling techniques used in traditional frame-by-frame (‘cel’) animation, and are then led through a panoply of techniques for conceptual planning, design, drawing, storyboarding, and editing. Dusty encourages students to explore their personal stories and helps them realize their objectives by teaching them new modes of self-expression. MAKING ANIMATED FILMS demystifies the processes of filmmaking with screenings and discussion of specific features of significant films in animation history. After a variety of exercises, each student makes one animated film to keep and share.

Portrait of Naimah Hassan All photographs courtesy of Franklin Furnace. [image description: a woman smiles into the camera, she has long dreadlocks and large oblong hoop earrings in silver, she wears a traditional african print dress]

NAIMAH HASSAN

Naimah Hassan’s THEATRE GAMES workshop explores movement, voice, text, and performance through acting, mimicry, pantomime, mindfulness techniques, and theatre. THEATRE GAMES helps children gain individual and communal experience with creative expression, public performance, and identity formation by allowing them to present their own narratives on stage. With Naimah’s guidance, students create their own presentations using space, voice, body movement, props, and other tools of theatre. Students develop storytelling and acting skills to share with each other in the classroom as well as in stage shows for their schoolmates, teachers, and fellow community members. The creativity and mindfulness imparted in THEATRE GAMES serves the children well in their standard schoolwork, and provides a solid foundation from which to conduct their daily lives.

Portrait of Ron Littke. All photographs courtesy of Franklin Furnace. [image description: a man with gray hair and a stripy top in gray and white conducts a singing workshop with young students, everyone is smiling]

Ron Littke

Ron Littke is a Brooklyn resident who has worked for two decades as a teaching artist specializing in filmmaking, video, and radio. Ron has presented workshops in public elementary, middle and high schools in all five boroughs of New York City, and elsewhere. His video art often takes the form of documentary style narratives that focus on little known historic events or places, and raise questions about the nature of history. Ron has worked throughout the United States and Europe as an actor, comedy writer, performance, and video artist, and has been a contributing producer for CBS This Morning, ABC Evening News, MTV News, and Deep Dish TV.

Portrait of Patricia Miranda. All photographs courtesy of Franklin Furnace. [image description: a woman holds a small object that she or a student made in a classroom environment]

Patricia Miranda

Patricia Miranda is an artist, educator and curator, as well as the founder and director of the "miranda arts project space", an art center and gallery space in Port Chester, NY. Her experience in arts education includes working at the Lyme Academy College of Fine Art and New Jersey City University. Patricia has helped develop numerous art based education programs in collaboration with, amongst others, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The American Museum of Natural History, The Metropolitan Museum, and the Smithsonian Institution. Her experience in arts education ranges from teaching foundational knowledge to instructing collegians and professionals. Her work has been exhibited in various art venues including Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont, NY; Wave Hill, Bronx NY; and Metaphor Contemporary Art, Brooklyn, NY.

Alva Rogers is an award-winning artist who works as a composer, performer, and playwright. She incorporates techniques of creative writing and performance into her unique elementary school curriculum. She is the recipient of grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, The Jim Henson Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, and Meet the Composer. The Joseph Papp Public Theater, Spoleto Festival USA, The Kitchen, Dixon Place and Heather Henson's Handmade Puppet Films have commissioned her work, and her readings and productions have been presented by the aforementioned theaters as well as HERE, Actor's Express Theater, New Georges, The Women's Project, Trinity Repertory Theater, Seattle Repertory Theater, The Walker Art Center, P.S. 122, The New Museum, Pillsbury House Theater, The O'Neill Puppetry Conference, and the American Museum of Natural History. She has collaborated with important artists including Heather Henson, Lisa Jones, Whitfield Lovell, Butch Morris, Vernon Reid, Elliot Sharp, Lorna Simpson, Urban Bush Women, Kara Walker, and Fred Wilson.

All photographs courtesy of Franklin Furnace. [image description: Alva Rogers sits with her hand under her chin, she has spiky afro hair and is sitting on a gridlike chair

Alva Rogers

Alva Rogers is an award-winning artist who works as a composer, performer, and playwright. She incorporates techniques of creative writing and performance into her unique elementary school curriculum. She is the recipient of grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, The Jim Henson Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, and Meet the Composer. The Joseph Papp Public Theater, Spoleto Festival USA, The Kitchen, Dixon Place and Heather Henson’s Handmade Puppet Films have commissioned her work, and her readings and productions have been presented by the aforementioned theaters as well as HERE, Actor’s Express Theater, New Georges, The Women’s Project, Trinity Repertory Theater, Seattle Repertory Theater, The Walker Art Center, P.S. 122, The New Museum, Pillsbury House Theater, The O’Neill Puppetry Conference, and the American Museum of Natural History. She has collaborated with important artists including Heather Henson, Lisa Jones, Whitfield Lovell, Butch Morris, Vernon Reid, Elliot Sharp, Lorna Simpson, Urban Bush Women, Kara Walker, and Fred Wilson.

Portrait of Harley Spiller. All photographs courtesy of Franklin Furnace. [image description: Harley smiles broadly into the camera he is standing in front of book shelves]

Harley Spiller

Harley Spiller a.k.a. INSPECTOR COLLECTOR ™ is a professional museum educator who presents his international collections to inspire the lifelong love of learning. His award-winning collections of restaurant menus, flags, maps, spoons, and more have been exhibited around the world, from The Smithsonian Institution to El Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas, Venezuela. His work has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Yorker, and numerous television credits include appearances as host, guest, and announcer for The Learning Channel, The Maury Povich Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, MTV, VH1, and National Public Radio. Named by Art & Antiques magazine as one of the nation's "Top 100 Collectors," Harley has twice been cited by Art in America for curating "Exhibitions of the Year", and a permanent exhibition featuring his newsstand paperweight collection is on display at The New York State Museum.

Portrait of Mary Suk. All photographs courtesy of Franklin Furnace. [image description: a woman is conducting a movement or dance class, she has her hands above her head, in the foreground students are mirroring her movements]

Mary Suk

With an MA in Dance and Dance Education from Teacher’s College and Columbia University as well as a BA in English from Dartmouth College, Mary Suk is a contributive force in the New York art community through her work as a choreographer, modern dancer, and arts educator. Mary has gained extensive experience in art and dance education by working as a teaching artist for the New York City Ballet, the Center for Kinesthetic Education, and the Lotus Music & Dance studio. Dances she has performed and choreographed have been showcased in a variety of art and cultural sites including the Joyce Theatre, the Aaron Davis Hall, the Merce Cunningham Studio, the 92nd St. Y, and the Bates Dance Festival.

Portrait of Martha Wilson. All photographs courtesy of Franklin Furnace. [image description: a woman looks directly at the camera, she wears pink glasses, her hair on the left side is gray and cut short, on the right she has a bob haircut dyed bright orange]

Martha Wilson

Martha Wilson, founder and director of SEQuential ART for KIDS,  is a pioneering feminist artist and art space director, who over the past four decades created innovative photographic and video works that explore her female subjectivity.  She has been described by New York Times critic Holland Cotter as one of “the half-dozen most important people for art in downtown Manhattan in the 1970s.”  In 1976 she founded Franklin Furnace, an artist-run space that champions the exploration, promotion and preservation of artist books, temporary installation, performance art, as well as online works.  She is represented by P.P.O.W Gallery in New York.

Photographs courtesy of: Jay Bivins, Helga Fassonaki, Ron Littke, Christopher Milne.