ArtWorks for Milwaukee's unique approach to employment

As part of Gallery Night and Day, ArtWorks for Milwaukee unveiled two separate projects created during their Fall 2010 programs, "Positive Influence Project" and "Safe Place Mural". Each project conveyed youth-driven messages, including anti-guns/gangs/drugs, and residents who make a difference.

Beyond the messages in the art itself, ArtWorks for Milwaukee's mission is to prepare teens to enter Milwaukee's workforce by utilizing the arts to teach employability skills.

ArtWorks for Milwaukee believes...

• Strong employment supports strong communities.
• Underserved teens who develop employability skills contribute to strong communities.
• Utilizing paid internships is an effective way to engage underserved teens and train highly transferable job skills. 

Image Courtesy of 88.9 Radio Milwaukee

To date, with over 50 successful diverse arts-based programs being completed by over 250 Interns since 2001...

• 75% have gone on to complete high school
• 51% have secured gainful employment
• 23% have successfully applied to other Internship projects through ArtWorks

Keep an eye out for ArtWorks for Milwaukee's upcoming spring and summer projects!

a few tid bits

Yesterday I met with a friend for coffee. We got into a rather deep conversation about the current state of our careers and our instinctive abilities to take on as much as we can. He is holding four jobs, working on commissioned paintings, managing a successful collaborative blog (Sabu Collective), creating his own work, and somehow still managing a social life. Although we confessed this lifestyle is somewhat unhealthy at times, I know its part of who we are.. organizers, motivators, creative problem-solvers, visual researchers, entrepreneurs, and sometimes, downright crazies.

I left the coffee shop feeling motivated to take a step forward with my current work. I purchased two cable releases and began photographing stereoscopically. For those unfamiliar, stereoscopic photography is a technique that simulates 3D vision. Two images are taken of the same object, one from the view of the left eye and the other from the view of the right eye. When viewed through a special viewer, the two images become one 3D image.

Traditional stereoscopic cameras:

Image Courtesy of Rick Soloway

My camera set-up:

World's largest photograph...

The Legacy Project, a non-profit documentary project, is dedicated to producing comprehensive documentation of the shuttered El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. The project, which began in April 2001, will continue over the next decade as the park is created and will employ photographs, video, and oral histories to provide a unique record of an extraordinary development in the history of Southern California.

In the summer of 2006, the six photographic artists of The Legacy Project unveiled the world's largest photograph, The Great Picture. The special reception took place inside the camera that created the world's largest photograph, a gigantic airplane hanger converted into a camera obscura, 44'-2" feet high by 79'-6" feet deep by 161'-6" feet wide. The photograph took 35 minutes to develop!

The Great Picture has been declared the world's largest photograph by The Guinness Book of World Records. It measures three stories high by eleven stories wide and cost $65,000 to produce. The best part about it is that it is, in fact, a silver gelatin print!

Kodachrome's last remaining roll developed

A friend of mine brought this to my attention and I thought I'd also share...

According to BBC News, the last remaining roll of Kodachrome has been developed in Kansas.

Since Kodak announced it was discontinuing Kodachrome, the number of labs that process the film has declined dramatically. Because of its difficult process and required attention, Dwayne's Photo in Kansas was the last remaining lab up until a few days ago.

Check out the full story at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12095771 
 A tribute to Kodachrome: http://1000words.kodak.com/post/?id=2388083