“My experience is that kids are going to do something—they have bundles of energy, so if we can provide them with experiences and positive energy they’ll gladly take us up on it,” Mann says. “Otherwise, they’ll use that energy another way, it will be expended somehow. Our job is to provide kids with meaningful things to do.”
Children’s Media Project
Based in Poughkeepsie, the Children’s Media Project (CMP) was founded by filmmaker Maria Marewski as a media literacy program for children where they not only become critical viewers, but learn to create media as well. The organization provides afterschool programs for middle schoolers, like one planned for this fall that will incorporate script-writing and character development for production of radio plays that will be hosted by Vassar’s WVKR. CMP also runs DROP TV (Direct Revolution of Programming Television), a program in which high schoolers are involved in every step of each show’s production, from brainstorming material to editing, filming, and acting. Nicole Fenichel-Hewitt, CMP’s executive director, says that kids can come in as beginners during the afterschool apprenticeship and leave as advanced filmmakers.
“One of the things that I think is a great advantage for DROP TV afterschoolers is that when summer comes around, we have paid apprentices,” Fenichel-Hewitt says. “And they get the skill set for lots of different filmmaking jobs.”
DROP TV apprentices learn basic camera skills and editing, and become proficient in software like Final Cut and Adobe Creative Suite. They also learn how to work sound and lighting—everything needed to be in production on a crew. Fenichel-Hewitt says that in addition to technical skills, the programming at CMP offers vital life skills as well.
“[Kids] become more able to work in team settings, they build leadership skills and are increasing their critical thinking skills,” Fenichel-Hewitt says. “They also learn about how to troubleshoot and navigate change and be adaptable to different situations and settings. It’s not just about teaching kids camera skills and professional development, it’s also life skills and decision making and being able to navigate life.”
Ryan Sullivan, a media educator at CMP who began as a student there more than eight years ago, credits the program with teaching him a number of critical skills and allowing him to have an outlet to positively affect his community.
“Children’s Media Project is important to have because Poughkeepsie is a community that’s struggling,” Sullivan says. “It’s a place where a lot of drugs and violence are an everyday life for some of these teenagers. We give them a way to be a part of something that’s a healthy environment and hopefully we give them the knowledge to make it. It’s rough out there.”
Mill Street Loft
When Carole Wolf started Mill Street Loft in 1981, she had no idea it would turn into the successful arts organization it has. “There was a need in this community to offer meaningful art classes to children and adults of all ages that was not being offered anywhere else,” Wolf says. “I was interested in something else; intergenerational programs, the wisdom of age and vitality of youth. I saw more and more two-parent families working, and more and more kids after school with nothing to do and no place to go.”
Mill Street Loft offers programs to children from as young as four years old to high school age. This fall, elementary school children can choose from a variety of classes such as Clay Creations, in which kids produce functional and sculptural clay objects, and Art Camp, a series that explores the use of different materials and media. Older, middle school-aged children can sign up for the Junior Art Institute and learn animation and sequential drawing, drawing and painting, and more.
High school students have the most class choices, with arts education opportunities ranging from figure drawing to photography and portfolio development. Mill Street Loft has established itself as a highly regarded organization among colleges, and Wolf says that to date, her students have received more than $12 million in merit-based scholarships.
Mill Street Loft has also developed a number of outreach programs. Habilidad is an art-based program that reaches out to Spanish and Latino youth to help them develop career awareness through technology training, portfolio development, job exploration, and public art projects. The Poughkeepsie PASWORD program was designed to help at-risk girls ages 11 to 17 overcome gender-specific issues like domestic violence and teen pregnancy by using literary, media, performing, and fine arts as tools of empowerment. Beacon offers a similar program called Project AWARE. Local school districts cooperate with Mill Street Loft to nominate students to participate, and funding has allowed these outreach programs to be given tuition-free.
