Journalism That Matters Mid-Year Gathering
“Create or Die: Forging Communities that Initiate, Innovate, Incubate”
June 3 – 6, 2009 | Detroit, MI
Wayne State University – Journalism Institute for Media Diversity | St. Andrews Hall
How are we going to reshape journalism so that it engages and serves all people and communities? Initiative, innovation, incubation. For three days in Detroit, some 150 or more people will work at the intersections of journalism, technology, community and diversity to answer our convening question — with action. We’ll share innovations and ideas already in process in the new media landscape, inviting entrepreneurs to showcase and further develop their work over a one-year cycle. Bring your project idea to a focused, three-day gathering of results-driven journalists, entrepreneurs, programmers, technologists, bloggers, videographers, funders, venture capitalists, artists and educators to discover, assess, shape and create new enterprises and new approaches to journalism in a digital age. We’ll learn about Detroit’s changing economy as a metaphor for the change and opportunity dogging journalism.
To register: https://www.123signup.com/event?id=mfptz
Category: Uncategorized
Youth Channel All-City: Mapping the Media Needs and Interests of Urban Youth
Dear Friends,
I am pleased to announce the on-line publication release of “Youth Channel All-City: Mapping the Media Needs and Interests of Urban Youth.”
In 2008 and 2009, the MNN Youth Channel along with a team of academics and youth researchers worked together to design and implement a citywide Community Needs Assessment (CNA). The primary aim of the CNA was to render visible and to understand the media needs and interests of New York City youth as well as to collect feedback for the “Youth Channel All-City” project, an initiative to create a youth-dedicated cable network for New York City and beyond.
Through focus groups, roundtable discussions, an online survey and individual interviews with youth, parents, youth media practitioners, educators, and other interested constituencies in New York City, the CNA collected information on media and community issues surrounding urban youth. I am excited to share with you their ideas and input. Their voices reveal not only what kind of programming they would like to see but also how passionate they feel about the work they engage with through youth media organizations.
Please visit our website,www.youthchannel.org to access a copy of the report. I am sure you will find it not only engaging and powerful but also relevant as we move into the 21st century media and education landscape.
Sincerely,
Isabel Castellanos
Director of Youth Channel
Manhattan Neighborhood Network
What is change you can believe in? 2010 Freedom of Expression Contest
NYCLU is sponsoring the Freedom of Expression Contest. This year’s theme: What is change you can believe in?
Youth are asked to choose an issue – racial justice, freedom of speech, immigrants’ rights, LGBTQ rights or something else – then make some noise! Write an essay, poem or short story. Create artwork. Perform spoken word. Make a video. Sing. Rhyme. Be heard! To enter, for complete info and to see past winners, click here.
Entries must be original (group entries accepted), and will not be returned. Applicants must be 21-years-old or younger and live in New York City. Current and former NYCLU/ACLU staff and board members, and their relatives, are not eligible. Finalists will be invited to Broadway Stands up for Freedom – the annual NYCLU benefit concert.
Deadline to submit is Friday, May 28 – Entries will be reviewed starting April 1. Educators get prizes for submitting the most student entries!
Questions and complete rules & info: visit www.nyclu.org/contest, call 212-607-3361 or email contest@nyclu.org
Thousands of Dollars in Prizes! No topic is off limits. All mediums are accepted.
PLURAL+ Organizers Call on World’s Youth to Participate in the Second Youth Video Festival On Migration and Diversity
New York, NY (February 26, 2010)— Building on last year’s successful launch of PLURAL+, a youth video festival on migration, diversity and social inclusion, the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) again invite the world’s youth to submit dynamic and forward-thinking videos focusing on these issues.
PLURAL+ 2009 not only provided young people with an effective platform to express themselves on key migration and diversity issues, but also the opportunity to reinforce the belief of the UNAOC and IOM that youth are indeed powerful and creative agents of social change.
“Last year’s PLURAL+ participation demonstrated how young people across the world are willing to creatively engage in complex social issues such as migration and cultural inclusiveness”, said Marc Scheuer, Director of the Alliance of Civilizations. “We were very pleased with the quality and relevance of the entries received, and we are thankful for the commitment of PLURAL+’s partners in supporting the distribution of these videos at festivals, conferences and TV broadcasts around the world.”
This year again, young people between the ages of 9 and 25 are invited to submit short videos of one to five minutes in length. The videos should express participants’ thoughts, experiences, questions and suggestions on migration, diversity, integration and identity, highlighting their realities as well as ideas on developing a peaceful coexistence in diverse cultural and religious contexts.
The aim of PLURAL+ is to ensure youth engagement in these important issues both at local and global levels by mainstreaming their voices through a variety of media platforms and distribution networks (broadcast, video festivals, conferences, events, Internet, DVD) around the world.
“We were pleased to see that the PLURAL+ 2009 entrants shared their thoughts, struggles and fears about their identity as youth as well as migrants. The true voice of PLURAL+ is found by listening to a population which is not only entering a new society as a migrant, but entering adulthood as well.” said Luca Dall’Oglio, IOM Permanent Observer to the United Nations.
A prestigious international jury will select three winners in three age categories (9–12, 13–17, 18–25). Each winner will be flown to New York and honored at an awards ceremony at the Paley Center for Media later in the year.
In addition, PLURAL+ partner organizations will award other exciting prizes and professional opportunities. These include co-productions and a chance for awardees to gain international exposure by presenting their work at film and video festivals, conferences and events around the world.
The winning videos from the 2009 edition of PLURAL + will be presented throughout the year at several events sponsored by partner organizations such as BaKaFORUM, Anna Lindh Foundation Forum, Chinh India Festival, Roots and Routes Festival, COPEAM Conference, the Royal Film Commission of Jordan’s Filmmakers Workshop, Havana Film Festival’s Red UNIAL, and NEXOS Alianza. In addition, broadcasters such as Aljadeed TV (Lebanon), TV Futura (Brazil), RAI (Italy) and United Nations TV affiliated networks will air the winning videos.
Participants in the 2010 competition should submit their videos between 1 March – 30 June, 2010. Further information including guidelines, rules and regulations, and the entry form can be found at the PLURAL+ website at: www.unaoc.org/pluralplus.
Contact:
Jordi Torrent, UNAOC, plural@unaoc.org
or Amy Muedin, IOM New York, amuedin@iom.int
©2010 United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. All rights reserved.
UNAOC Secretariat, The Chrysler Building, 405 Lexington Avenue, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10174 USA
Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup, May 24-25, 2010
The 2010 Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup is where top brand, corporate and social marketers, media professionals, educators and non-profit organizations gather to share best practices, research and latest strategies on marketing to youth with technology.
The Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup Event takes place May 24th and 25th at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco, CA.
For more information, visit http://mashup.ypulse.com/.
The Smithsonian Latino Center’s 2010 Young Ambassadors Program / Summer Leadership Development Program — Apply Now!
The Smithsonian Latino Center is pleased to announce the open application season for the 2010 Young Ambassadors Program. The Young Ambassadors Program is a national, interdisciplinary leadership development program for high school seniors. The mission of the program is to foster the next generation of Latino leaders in the arts, sciences, and humanities via the Smithsonian Institution and its resources. This program is made possible through the generous support of Ford Motor Company Fund.
Students with an interest in and commitment to the arts, sciences, and humanities as it pertains to Latino communities and cultures are selected to travel to Washington, D.C. for a week-long, leadership development seminar at the Smithsonian Institution. The seminar encourages youth to explore and understand Latino identity and embrace their own cultural heritage through visits to the Smithsonian’s Latino collections and one-on-one interaction with anthropologists, artists, curators, historians, scientists and other museum professionals.
Following the training seminar, students participate in a four-week interdisciplinary education internship in museums and other cultural institutions in their local communities, including Smithsonian-affiliated organizations.
Participation in the Young Ambassadors Program is underwritten by Ford Motor Company Fund and includes meals and accommodations for the duration of the one-week training seminar, round-trip travel costs to Washington, D.C., and a program stipend. Students selected are responsible for all expenses during the four-week internship, including transportation, accommodations, and meals.
Upon completion of the 5-week program, participants will receive a $2,000 program stipend towards their higher education. Students that do not complete the seminar and four-week internship will not receive the program stipend.
The deadline to apply is April 7, 2010. For further information and
application guidelines and to apply, please visit http://www.latino.si.edu/programs/youngambassadors.htm or contact Emily Key, Education Programs Manager, at 202.633.1268 or by email at slceducation@si.edu.
Greater Boston Area | Part I • Volume 4 • Issue 1
Welcome to YMR’s first issue in 2010, documenting the Greater Boston Area “Investigating Youth Media Practice,” with support from Open Society Institute.
Practitioners in the Boston area are a fantastic group. Many are part of RYMAEC, a consortium of youth media educators, which you can read more about in this issue.
About 25 people gathered at the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) on January 8, 2010–thanks to Joe Douillette, YMR’s newest Peer Review Board member–to talk about the challenges, experiences and insights to youth media happening in Boston. Because so many attended and aim to participate, the Greater Boston Area will be split in Part I and Part II (out April 15).
In this issue, you will find that Boston youth media have an interesting landscape to navigate. In particular, race issues; bridging the divide between Universities and local community members; mediating between different neighborhoods and stereotypes; partnering with health providers to make local change; using different mediums like graphic design; and, balancing the process of creating media with the demands of a youth-led film festival.
A warm thanks to all nine contributors for their dedication and hard work:
• Wendy Blom (Somerville Community Access Television, Next Generation Producers)
• Angelica Brisk and Maura Tighe Gattuso (Arts Bridge, My Allston Brighton)
• Joe Douillette (RYMAEC/ICA)
• Eryn Johnson and Melina O’Grady (Do It Your Damn Self!! National Youth Video and Film Festival)
• Alison Kotin (The Urbano Project, Teen Graphic Design Curators)
• Joanna Marinova (Press Pass TV)
• Susan Owusu (Youth Voices Collaborative/Wheelock College)
A special thanks to Christine Newkirk, senior program associate at AED who edited and coached writers in this issue. Many thanks to YMR’s Peer Review board for giving helpful feedback to each writer.
And, applause and thanks to Joe Douillette, the director of the Fast Forward program at ICA and founder of RYMAEC, who was instrumental in organizing and leading the cohort.
We welcome you to join the conversation for each of these articles using YMR’s “comment” feature. You can also send feedback or comments directly to idahl@aed.org. If you are interested in posting a pod or vodcast response, please contact YMR’s media crew or email idahl@aed.org.
To reserve your copy of YMR’s up-and-coming release of the annual print journal (Volume 3), you can subsrcibe and purchase via credit card or by check.
Warmly,
Ingrid Hu Dahl, Editor-in-Chief, YMR
Youth Media Reporter is managed by the Academy for Educational Development
Health-Related Teen Media Partnerships
Somerville is a densely populated city of 77,500 people in the Boston urban area. Its residents are a mix of middle class, well-educated young professionals and low income, immigrant families with children in the public schools. The students must deal with issues of acculturation as well as the mainstream American problems of alcohol and substance abuse, gang involvement, teen pregnancy, depression, obesity, and domestic violence.
The City of Somerville and youth-serving organizations in the city have been proactive in dealing with these problems, especially since 2004 when a rash of student suicides shook the city. As a result, the city now provides after school activities, many grant-funded, that deal with educating youth about how to make healthy choices. Federal and state grants are available for youth projects that deal with substance abuse, and many urban social service groups use these grants to fund projects.
As a result, we’ve seen some important changes. For example, Somerville youth have seen underage drinking decline among middle school peers by 50% over two years since they began working with the Health Department and Somerville Community Access Television on community outreach, including media projects that reach their peers via cable TV and the Web.
Youth media in partnership with health providers truly are making a difference in our community, benefiting young people and increasing the overall effectiveness of the field.
Next Generation Producers
As a public access center, SCATV’s mission is to provide a free speech venue for the city on cable TV, providing equipment, facilities, and training to produce programs for the Channel. Youth media is an integral aspect of the mission, as youth rarely have a voice in mainstream media, and the images they see of urban youth are often negative. Next Generation Producers (NGP) is the youth media program of SCATV, which aims to give teens the tools they need to express their world using up to date media technology.
NGP has worked on health-related media programs with teens through a variety of partnerships, including the Boys and Girls Club, a Latino immigrant support organization, a counseling center, an anti-poverty organization with a Latino youth group, and most consistently with a youth group of Somerville Cares About Prevention (SCAP), a community based coalition supported by the Somerville Health Department.
NGP has found these collaborations an excellent way to help achieve citywide goals of having healthier young people, which in effect, increases the value of SCATV to the community. I will focus on the partnership between SCAP and SCATV as a case study as it has been the most frequent and successful.
A Working Partnership
The mission of SCAP is to bring together and mobilize the diverse community of Somerville to prevent and address issues associated with substance abuse while promoting positive mental, spiritual, and physical health, especially among youth. Their youth group is called Somerville Positive Forces (SPF) and its mission is to empower youth to make healthier decisions regarding the use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.
Since 2007, SPF and NGP have worked together to produce public service announcements, magazine shows, and short original dramas on the topics of underage drinking, prescription drug abuse among teens, and depression.
SCAP benefits our youth media efforts because they diversify our pool of applicants, further uniting young people across cultural groups that might not have a similar opportunity in school settings; and, SCAP issues an annual high school student health survey to follow the rates of alcohol and drug use, depression, and domestic violence in the lives of teens (see: http://www.somervillema.gov/CoS_Content/documents/SomervilleHS08_ExecutiveSummary.pdf). Working with factual percentages related to one’s community is powerful for the young people we serve.
SCAP sees media production, which we provide, as a tool for getting their message out and directly affecting young people through their prevention efforts. For example, for a recent NGP project, students videotaped a skit of a peer saying no to alcohol among a group of friends, representing the statistics in clear graphics throughout the piece. The piece was powerful for both the youth producers and the audience; and, it gave SCAP a direct means to get their message across to a target demographic.
Besides the efficacy of the message, a key to the success of the partnership has been the funding that SCAP receives to support their work at SCATV. SCAP’s primary funders are the Federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the MA Bureau of Substance Abuse Services (BSAS). According to the Director of SCAP, the funders appreciate the wide distribution via cable TV and the Web of the health-related messages that our youth produce.
SCAP contracts NGP to guide the media production aspects of the program, usually providing about $2,000 for a ten-week workshop. NGP has its own cameras and laptops to use for production, and two staff members who are dedicated to the program for a portion of their hours. SCAP has an adult leader who works with the teens as well, keeping the projects on target with the information to be presented. In addition to learning production skills, speaking in front of groups, and conducting interviews with strangers in the streets, teens begin to believe in the positive impact they can have on the local community using media.
Suggestions to the Field
If you are able to identify a health provider that is interested in partnering with your youth media organization, consider emphasizing the win-win partnership that this article highlights. The topic of health is a popular and growing trend and youth media and its distribution capabilities are increasingly attractive to many of these providers.
Consider networking with other youth serving organizations to determine if they have received health-related grants for programs that could incorporate media elements. Suggest co-authoring grants with these organizations.
Once you establish a partnership, here are a few important tips to be mindful of:
Research what health issues are the most important to teens in your community. Have a group advisor on board who is knowledgeable about the topic so that the projects are factual and relevant.
Make sure that the media production skills you offer are interesting and fresh. One challenge we found is that we needed to keep our media technology and instruction hip and new to keep the teens invested. Encourage participants to experiment, to write more abstracted scripts, and even incorporate stop-motion animation. Statistics presented in graphics are effective and give authenticity to the projects—they can be used in multiple creative ways.
Distribute the end projects far and wide through all means of distribution available, including live screenings, cable TV, Facebook, YouTube, and community websites. Enter videos in film festivals to gain recognition for participants, further spreading the information and message forward. This not only helps inform a wide array of viewers but also encourages health-providers to sustain partnerships with youth media.
Next Steps
It is in the best interest of youth media programs to seek out partnerships with youth-serving organizations in their communities to produce health-related media projects, attracting larger partnerships with local and national health providers. We have the right tools, approach, and methodology to make major changes in the areas of health education and access, which will enrich our communities and the young leaders in our programs.
Wendy Blom is the executive director of Somerville Community Access Television in Somerville, MA. She has an MA in Mass Media from Emerson College and an MA in Theater Arts from the University of Colorado. Blom has been active in public access television since 1997. Previously she served as Community Programming Director for the Lowell, MA access center, and as Outreach and Education Coordinator at Boston Neighborhood Network.
Uniting a Neighborhood: Youth Media as a University-to-Community Bridge
Known for being the heart of Red Sox Nation and home to much of the U.S.’s history, Boston is undoubtedly a college town. More than 100 colleges and universities surround Greater Boston. Higher education is one of the largest employers in the city and owns significant quantities of real estate. Because of this, residents often have a conflicted relationship with these massive institutions.
In spite of Boston’s positive assets, a tension exists between the various members of the community—especially between long-term residents and the universities. As a result, large institutions are searching for ways to work with area organizations and schools, creating targeted grants to increase cultural and educational resources for the neighborhoods.
Boston College, Boston University and Harvard University, while seen as a source of aggravation also have enormous potential for institutional partnerships. Locals like us who attended these schools wonder how we can connect the amazing brainpower, resources and funding from these institutions with our communities. This article outlines the process of, and progress we are making, in creating new alliances within one of the most embattled neighborhoods of Boston.
About “My Allston Brighton”
Allston Brighton, is a section of Boston, MA. The residents of Allston Brighton are as diverse as they come; artists, recent college grads, deeply rooted families, new immigrant families, the elderly and youth. It is a neighborhood with innumerable stories to share.
Despite the fact that several important production companies and a handful of radio and television stations are located in Allston Brighton, including WGBH (the flagship station of PBS), and Brighton High School (which has offered a media production track to juniors and seniors), there is still a large discrepancy between the access to arts/media education available to Harvard students and that which is available to the community surrounding the University.
In response to the lack of arts/media for urban public school youth, the Boston Public School (BPS) Arts Initiative encourages urban education leaders to look outside the system to teaching artists and community arts organizations to fill the void. More funds are being pledged to promote partnerships with arts organizations, including youth media educators, creating new opportunities to connect media programs to funding.
Allston Brighton Arts Bridge has been able to identify a way to promote youth media education that serves the dual roles of providing arts experiences for urban students and communicating across the growing tensions between Harvard and the neighborhood. Allston Brighton Arts Bridge’s pilot program “My Allston Brighton” is a case study of an urban teen arts program that works to unite the local community among itself and with Harvard University through offering arts experiences. As an organization, we have personal and professional ties to the neighborhood.
“My Allston Brighton” is designed to teach members to tell cogent and compelling stories about their lives and their neighborhood. Our goal is to build individual and community identity through this pilot program. It is not only a response to the dynamics of a neighborhood, but also to the overwhelming lack of arts education available to Boston Youth. Interestingly enough, Harvard Allston Partnership Fund, is the main funding source for “My Allston Brighton.”
Case Study
Rachel, a participant in our program, made a documentary of her favorite creative places in Allston Brighton as an effort to dispel the myth that the neighborhood belongs to college students and the elderly. It is one of four projects being produced by the members of My Allston Brighton and demonstrates the fact that behind the scenes, the work of youth media enables us to meet our central goal: to bridge or connect members of the community through new creative media.
We see Rachel, a young woman connecting to other youth, to area resources, and experimenting with new art forms. She explores places she has never been—like the West End House, a chapter of the Boys & Girls Club. “I never knew this existed!” she expresses. The process of documenting the local community and organizations supports our collective efforts. Now, Rachel is a proud member of West End House, taking drum lessons and meeting new peers.
Call to the Field
At Arts Bridge, we are navigating the challenges of serving the local community, balancing an arts/media experience for urban teens, and acting as a mediator between Harvard and local residents. Connecting theory and academic research to practice allows us to create and refine quality programs. In the future we plan to expand new creative media experiences in the neighborhood and to build sustainable collaborations. As one of our youth producers explains, “The neighborhood needs us, cause we’re creative.”
Many institutions have identified the need for more arts in our culture, both within the campus and among the communities they exist in. We encourage youth media educators to seek partnerships with local institutions. Long-term community building is the key to success. Funding is crucial, but partnerships do not have to be tied exclusively to dollar signs, for each stage of a youth media project is an opportunity to enhance partnerships and build community.
Youth created media is an opportunity to help teens connect with and serve their community, filling the divide within neighborhoods. Allston Brighton needs young people to bring out the many players in the community: not just college students or the elderly, but political representatives, business owners, artists, and other teens. Youth media makers allow the community an occasion for reflection, evaluation and celebration. Everyone in the community is a potential partner and has insights to offer.
Despite the looming challenges of recruitment, curriculum development and time, we recommend that the field actively seek out collaborations and partnerships with local actors and with universities. Youth media can act as a bridge between universities and the local community—an unmet need found nation-wide.
Angélica Allende Brisk is an award-winning filmmaker, producer, editor, and teaching artist currently teaching at Cambridge Rindge & Latin High School and the lead instructor for My Allston Brighton. In production she has worked for American Experience, La Plaza, Curious George, Zoom, Postcards From Buster, Peep and the Big Wide World, Nova, Blackside and with a several independent filmmakers. Her latest film Hyman Bloom: The Beauty of All Things will premier at the Museum of Fine Arts in March 2010. She has taught at The Workshops in Maine, Simmons College and in a variety of afterschool programs around Greater Boston. She is a former president and board member of Women in Film and Video in New England, and current President of Tied to the Tracks Films, Inc. a woman owned documentary film company.
Maura Tighe Gattuso is the former owner of Maura Tighe Casting and has worked on feature films, independent films, and noted educational television shows such as “Zoom,” “Fetch with Ruff Ruffman” and “Design Squad” for WGBH. She has directed professional theatre in New York City, taught stage and film acting for over 20 years, worked as a drama teacher in a public high school and is the founder and Executive Director of a thriving, neighborhood 501(c)3 educational non-profit youth theatre on the South Shore. She currently teaches film acting at Emerson College and Boston Arts Academy and has appeared as guest lecturer on the film industry and acting at Brandeis University, UMass Boston, and other area colleges. She is a member of Emerson College’s Alumni Board of Directors, and a former board member of the Massachusetts Production Coalition.
Building the Youth Media Arts Community in Boston: A History of RYMAEC
With many divergent philosophies, funding priorities, field-professionalizing efforts and screening venues in the greater Boston-area, it has been a challenge to identify the core community of youth media practitioners.
As a group, we have struggled to determine our common goals and needs, and how to identify to the public who we are and what makes us unique. I have been intrigued by this challenge since I began working in the youth media field as a Boston-based professional in 1993.
But, in 1997, a youth media consortium was birthed.
That year, I was working at the Community Art Center running the Teen Media Program and the Do It Your Damn Self!! National Youth Video Festival. The local youth media field, at that time, consisted of about six agencies and individuals who were working with youth in various settings.
The Massachusetts Cultural Council was funding most of us through its YouthReach program, and the New England Film and Video Festival (NEFVF) still existed through Boston Film and Video Foundation (BFVF). Three of the youth programs still exist today, but neither NEFVF nor BFVF survived.
After many conversations with Jared Katsiane, one of the youth media practitioners, we agreed it would be beneficial and fun to have our students meet regularly and share their work. The result gave rise to the Reel Eyes Consortium, a traveling presentation of youth work that screened in each of the youth programs’ neighborhoods or institutions, culminating at the Museum of Fine Arts.
In those days, egos in the field were big, as the field was fresh and more funding was available. To prove your program was the most deserving was sometimes weighted more heavily than community building for the welfare of us all. For this reason, the consortium dissolved, and Jared and I vowed not to put effort into it again until the climate changed and funding was available for the consortium itself. We continued to work together unofficially, as we had been doing prior.
In 2003, I left the Community Art Center and decided to leave the world of youth media, returning to school. Yet, a week later, I applied to and was hired to run the Fast Forward Teen Video Program at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), where I currently work.
Shortly after I started at the ICA I suggested that the institute support a youth media consortium. The ICA agreed, and began to support the consortium first, as a fiscal sponsor, and eventually as a part of the ICA’s program budget, as part of a 3-year Wallace Foundation grant.
Together, the consortium established an advisory group, created a website, and formalized our mission, which is: “to create a community of Boston area individuals, organizations, and community-based groups committed to supporting and strengthening the youth media arts field through exchanging information, resources, and youth-produced media.”
With its latest iteration, the Regional Youth Media Arts Education Consortium (RYMAEC), in discussion to be a permanent program at the ICA, we have discovered the benefits of being affiliated with a large cultural institution while simultaneously we grapple with how that relationship influences the practice and perception of the community.
At the same time that I was excited to finally have our vision funded, I was unsure of how an institution might exert its own mission and practice, voluntarily or not. Under the umbrella of the ICA, the immediate challenge for me was to define RYMAEC in such a way that it maintained its identity as a true consortium with decision-making coming form its members.
Another challenge was to protect RYMAEC from being absorbed into a position or to a budget line within the institution. I wanted to ensure that the consortium always had sufficient time and money allotted to it as a unique effort.
In addition, outside of the institution, the field had changed. Youth media in Boston was no longer 6 individuals working in organizations with a few kids. It was every student with a cell phone, every teacher with some excitement for the Internet and iMovie; it was Drupal, Ning, Facebook and YouTube.
As we witnessed the youth media field changing, we realized that those of us who had been doing this for 10 years or more have much to offer the field, but that the new developments in the technology along with the new way in which it is being used has developed a new generation of “experts.” Connecting these generations and experiences with each other would be of great benefit to the field and the youth we all serve. As a consortium, we created these connections through two actions that yielded key insights.
First, we formalized the make up of the advisory board by identifying 12 types of institutions or individuals who would represent that breadth of experience, from small non-profits to institutions of higher education. Having a representative from MIT’s Comparative Media Studies program, a Public Access Station Staff member, a Boston Public School teacher and a filmmaker who works in a small non-profit in a small city outside of Boston allowed us to more fully understand the possible uses and needs of curricula and practice in youth media arts. The diverse representatives allow us to be more creative and inclusive in our outreach to attract and support those who are doing this work.
Secondly, we decided to risk over-population in our consortium and offer an event that was open to all who were working with new media technologies in education. Our first “Web 2.0penMic” was a success, allowing public school teachers stand up next to Second Life Gurus, each demonstrating her skills and enthusiasm for new media technologies and arts. By opening up this presentation and dialogue to a wide spectrum of educators, we were taking a risk by suggesting that we were not the experts, and that our community might benefit from being larger than just the youth media arts teachers.
Beth Balliro, RYMAEC Advisory group member and Visual Arts teacher at the Boston Arts Academy, attended the event and remarked, “It was inspiring to see non-media teachers taking risks and exploring ways that new technologies could enhance their academic curricula.”
Through all of this, my fear of the influence of the institution had turned into a healthy dialogue between myself and my colleagues at the ICA about how membership of a self-determining consortium, many of whom work outside of the scope of the “art” world, can exist as, and be funded by, a program of a contemporary art institution.
I have come to appreciate how the perception of such an institution can attract a wider following. Contemporary art is highlighted by experimental uses of information and technology, so the stage is set for our members to feel comfortable taking risks. Furthermore, the expectations of attending an event at such an institution are already met through the perception, setting and exhibition nature of the institute.
Although community building is a concerted effort between individuals, organizations, and time, in Boston we have learned that a mix of patience and persistence has allowed programs to establish roots deep enough to sustain and build a lasting consortium. As a collective, we recognize that we cannot stay relevant and flourish if we are unwilling to embrace, celebrate and incorporate new ideas and individuals into our curricula and methodology. Furthermore, we have learned that patience and longevity can lead to the right partners, even if they are as unlikely as I might have guessed RYMAEC and the ICA would be. We must actively communicate with as many relevant community members and institutions as possible in order to support youth media’s efforts to navigate through the ever-changing world of media, art and technology.
Joseph Douillette is a video artist and educator who lives and works in the Boston area. Since 2003, he has directed the Fast Forward Teen Video Program at the Institute of Contemporary Art. He has directed various other youth media art programs, including the Teen Media Program/Do It Your Damn Self!! Youth Video Festival at the Community Art Center, and the Video Program at the Creative Arts at Park Summer program in Brookline. Joe served on the Board of Directors of Cambridge Community Television from 2000–2008. He also runs Egg Rock Media, a local media production and consulting business, and JP Sucks, a local gourmet lollipop company. Joe has two daughters and he oversees the work of about 20,000 honeybees.