The Unreal World: Mission Voices Summer 2011

An Artists in Education Program

The Unreal World: Mission Voices Summer 2011

Opening/Grito de la Mision Celebration: Wednesday, August 10, 6:00-8:00pm
Program Dates: July 6 – August 10, 2011
Exhibition Dates: August 10 – 27, 2011, Tuesday – Saturday, 12:00-6:00pm

Lead Artists: Mission Voices Summer Students
Lead Teaching Artists: Lindsay Ellen Howland, Robert Minervini, Aïdah Aliyah Rasheed
Teaching Artist Assistants: Emily Hope Dobkin, Courtney Johnson, Nicci Yin
Youth Leaders: Sonya Alexandra, Christian Fernandez, Tina Wong
Collaborator Partners: Jewish Vocational Services (JVS), LifeWorks, MYEEP
Program Manager: Tara Foley
MVS Intern and Photographer: Gretchen Faust

Southern Exposure's Mission Voices Summer (MVS) is an arts program that gives youth the opportunity to exercise leadership skills in their community by exploring relevant social and personal issues through visual arts workshops. The intensive summer program focuses on arts-based community development by pairing local artists with teens. Youth learn 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 a project presented to the public.

This year's Mission Voices Summer theme, The Unreal World, explores the subject of dreams, both real and imagined. Throughout the summer, three collaborative, multi-disciplinary projects guide learning and art making, culminating with an opening event and an exhibition on view to the public.

Lindsay Ellen Howland and Emily Hope Dobkin work with students to explore the subject of dreams through the mediums of papermaking, bookmaking and bookbinding, writing, installation, sculpture and movement. They will investigate Native American interpretations of dreams and create large-scale sculptures that reference and re interpret traditional dream catchers.

Robert Minervini and Courtney Johnson facilitate a sculpture and painting workshop in response to the works of futurists and artists such as Buckminster Fuller and Archigram. Students will create a large-scale geodesic dome and use the medium of painting to express ideas about the future and environmental conservation.

Aïdah Aliyah Rasheed and Nicci Yin work with students to address the issues of real and imagined identities through textile arts. Students study color, symbology, design and meaning in flags and banners. Students design their own flags and banners informed by the work of artists such as David Hammond, Gees Bend Quilts and Pam Glew.

Generous support for Mission Voices Summer and SoEx's Artists in Education Programs is provided by The L.E.A.W. Family Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Nelson Fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, The San Francisco Arts Commission, and SoEx’s Members.