Arts Every Day Prioritizes Equitable Access to the Arts in Baltimore City Schools

Janelle Diamond — Tue, 10 Sep 2024 16:44:08 +0000

—Photography by Gary Landsman

After spending five years running an after-school program at Collington Square Elementary/Middle School, Julia Di Bussolo realized something was missing.

“I got to meet so many amazing students and families and community leaders and was able to weave in a lot of the arts into that program,” she says—but it didn’t feel like enough.

She appreciated the intersectionality of arts and community and wanted to see what she could do outside of what the structured school day was allowing. So, when she saw the executive director job posting for Arts Every Day, a strategic partner to the Baltimore City school district that advances equitable access to the arts, it was everything she was looking for.

“It seemed like an opportunity to really address some of the systemic challenges that I had seen students and their families face.”

Since becoming director in August 2012, Di Bussolo has grown the organizational budget to over $1.5 million and expanded the annual program reach by providing thousands of students with arts experiences like artist residencies and performances, purchasing over $100,000 in musical instruments, kilns, and arts equipment, and organizing student exhibitions.

Arts Every Day’s goal is that “every Baltimore City student has access to a transformative arts education that prepares them to be artists, leaders, advocates, makers, and supporters of the arts,” she says.

It also supports teachers who are providing art integration, provides access to arts and cultural programming across the city, and promotes Baltimore City students as artists and creatives. There is also a youth arts council that works to make sure that the “youth voice isn’t lost in the sauce when it comes to looking at systemwide issues related to arts access.” Di Bussolo took that group to Annapolis in March to meet with lawmakers and to testify before the appropriations committee.

The work is important to her not just as an art lover but a mom, too.

“My son has grown up over the course of these years and he’s a student in Baltimore City Public Schools and has been since kindergarten. So, you know, I see my role as an outside advocate, but also as a parent in the school system.”

Source

Middle School Photographers Exhibit Work in Collaboration with Devin Allen

Jess Mayhugh — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 12:14:00 +0000

“The crazy thing about it is they’re better than me,” activist and photographer Devin Allen says with a laugh, speaking to more than 100 attendees at the opening of “Through Our Eyes,” an event that celebrated an exhibit of photographs by seven Windsor Hills middle school students.

“It took them two, three months to learn what they learned and to get the shots that they got,” continues Allen, who’s perhaps best known for his photo that made the cover of Time last May, after the death of Freddie Gray. “It took me two years to get that good!”

Presented by Arts Every Day—a nonprofit that aims to improve access to art education in Baltimore City Public Schools—“Through Our Eyes” culminates a three-month-long after-school photography workshop Allen led. He curated the show himself, selecting three photos from each of the students’ portfolios to display.

A self-taught photographer, Allen was inspired to teach after witnessing the spring unrest. “I saw so many kids on the front lines, you know, riding their bikes in between police officers,” he says, before introducing the students. “I just thought, ‘What if these kids had cameras? What would they capture?’”

The exhibit offers a look into the day-to-day lives of the seven students, who brought cameras to class, home, and while hanging out with friends. Their work spans portraits (like 8th-grader Kyla Booker’s close-up of her cousin eating ice cream) to landscapes (like a photograph by 8th-grader Tyriq Hall, who captured the view from a window of his math class).

Students had a range of previous arts experience. Amari Weems, an 8th grader, says photography built on her interest in drawing, while 7th-grader Charles Lockner—who now emphasizes his loyalty to the Canon cameras he used throughout the workshop—says he used to practice with his sister’s Hannah Montana camera.

Omar Pearce, an 8th grader and poet, commented on the synergy he discovered between photography and his writing. “Sometimes pictures can paint something more than words can,” he explains, adding that a photograph he took of a bird inspired him to paraphrase a Langston Hughes quotation on stage at the opening: “If you take away dreams from life, it’s like a bird without wings.”

For Allen, the “Through Our Eyes” project began almost a year ago, when he decided to raise money for photography equipment to teach kids in the city. After receiving thousands in donations—which, according to Allen, includes $20,000 from Russell Simmons and $5,000 from the Reginald F. Lewis Museum—he bought 10 cameras, which he used for instruction at local youth center Penn North Kids Safe Zone.

Cindy Marcoline, a media arts specialist from Windsor Hills, approached Allen about working with the school soon after. “I just wing everything,” Allen says of his teaching style. “I honor what they like, what they don’t like. I treat them as equals—I don’t treat them like I’m superior to them.”

Moving forward, Arts Every Day is fundraising for Allen to do a speaker tour at five other local schools, according to executive director Julia Di Bussolo. “We’re hoping that this partnership has some legs beyond Windsor Hills.”

“Through Our Eyes” will be on display at Motor House, 120 W. North Ave., through April 15. To schedule a time to tour the exhibit, reach out to Arts Every Day by calling 410-685-1172 or emailing info@artseveryday.org. Proceeds from the exhibit’s photography sales go to the student photographers.

Source

Arts Every Day – Baltimore Magazine

Arts Every Day Prioritizes Equitable Access to the Arts in Baltimore City Schools

Middle School Photographers Exhibit Work in Collaboration with Devin Allen