Thank you for gracing us with your presence, smiles, cheers and accolades at AHC's 21st Annual ArtEsteem Exhibition! ArtEsteem students put their heart and soul into their artwork and we had one of our most successful exhibition openings to date.
Super Heroes in Progress
We are more than halfway through the Super Heroes project at AHC. Students have been studying social justice issues that are important to them, and designing life-sized self portraits that relate to their cause. Each painting exists not only as an art piece, but as a call for social change.
The finished pieces will be on display at our upcoming ArtEsteem Exhibition on May 18th. The annual ArtEsteem Exhibition is always one of our highlights of the year. You can see the full details on our event page.
ArtEsteem instructor Justin Mullon teaches some basic illustration techniques.
Identity, Strengths & Weaknesses
The ArtEsteem program is moving full steam ahead at Hoover Elementary School! The current project focuses on themes of identity. The youth are designing masks that reflect different aspect of their personality, and in essence, how they see themselves. This process has brought some thought provoking discussions to the classroom. Students were challenged by being asked critical questions such as, “What have you learned about your identity?” and “What are your strengths?”
This project will go on throughout the school year, and we’re excited to show you the completed pieces on May 18th at ArtEsteem’s 21st Annual Exhibition! The event is happening right here at AHC, catch the details on our event page.
Masks from different cultures, for inspiration.
From left: Mask inspiration, Mr. Eddie helps out, student writes down her strengths.
Students work on developing their narrative, and help each other along the way!
Student thinks about her identity.
BAYCAT Filming at AHC
We loved having our friends from BAYCAT at AHC this morning! BAYCAT is a nonprofit based in San Francisco that provides media education and jobs for youth of color. Their mission is to end inequality and racism through the art of storytelling.
This morning they interviewed AHC co-founders Kokomon and Aeeshah Clottey for a documentary on food justice in black communities. We will keep you posted about it’s release date!
pictured: AHC co-founder Kokomon Clottey
pictured: BAYCAT staff
pictured: AHC co-founder Aeeshah Clottney
Maze Cut Bookmaking: Honoring LGBTQ and Black Communities
The celebration and honoring of the LGBTQ community and Black community has been stiched into our art project this week at Tenderloin Community School (TCS) in San Francisco. Along with their mentors, our participating students learned and celebrated the LGBTQ and Black community during regular school hours. ArtEsteem stopped by TCS to support in the capturing of that knowledge and materialize it
into a book for the students to keep and share.
The handmade book integrated modern and classical symbols from all over the world that represent various gender identities. In addition, in honor of Black History Month students familiarize themselves with the classical Adinkra symbols from Ghana that centered around respected characteristics like strength, knowledge, honor, etc.
Mr. Eddie and Ms. Nan assisting students in the bookmaking process.
In all, it was a fantastic day of learning, celebrating and honoring the LGBTQ and Black communities in addition to learning a new art medium that will not be forgotten shortly.
-March 14, 2019
Three students pose with their freshly-made books.