Schools on Staten Island dead last funding art classes

Clay masks created by PS 18 students 2001

article in the Staten Island Advance
Schools on Staten Island dead last funding art classes
Published: Sunday, February 27, 2011
By Amy Padnani

I haven't been involved in education for awhile, but as much as I've heard NYC schools in certain neighborhoods have long had a dearth of art education. I taught at S.I. PS 18 in 2001 for the Studio in a School program one day a week and it was the only art education in the school. At the same time my son went to PS3 in the West Village of Manhattan where there was a full time staff art teacher and additionally the parents pooled money to hire ceramics and music teachers. Different priorities for divergent communities.

As an attendee and presenter of arts programming on Staten Island it would be great if more of the non-arts community had an appreciation for what is offered here. It seems most often at events the art community is just working and reaping the benefits for itself. Is that the result of the Staten Island public not getting enough exposure to the arts as youth or just laziness?

The article mentions that some cultural community leaders are now creating the SI Teaching Artist Institute. It doesn't tell you that the artists have to pay to attend. I felt bad for the artists attending this training since Studio in a School pays the artist for their training. And training the artists isn't going to solve the inadequate amount of arts education, parents and school leaders need to fight for curriculum improvement.

Fluxfest buttons by Picasso Gaglione

Fluxus art on SI, in 1967 and 2011

The Day de Dada art nurses had a great weekend at Fluxfest Chicago. Our performance went well and was appreciated by the audience. We met a lot of wonderful Fluxus artists and saw a lot of other interesting work too. We were excited that Yoko Ono liked what we were doing and added it to her web site.
http://imaginepeace.com/archives/13922

I learned that in 1967 Charlotte Moorman organized the "5th Annual Avant Garde Festival" on the Staten Island ferryboat- John F. Kennedy with approximately a hundred artists' kinetic-light artworks, sculptures, videotape recorder compositions, environments, and computer compositions as well as jazz, poetry, electronic music, Happenings, chamber music, and dance. It was a 24-hour event and participants included Christo, Al Hansen, Geoffrey & Bici Hendricks, Ray Johnson, Moorman, Nam June Paik, Sun Ra, Carolee Schneemann, and Bob Watts. Ken Dewey got the fire-department boats which shoot huge streams of water, to shoot their water over the harbor. The festival began with that piece and a piece by Allan Kaprow in which all the cars on the ferry and various people with foghorns blew their horns in unison.

Moorman estimated that forty thousand people came to see the festival in a
twenty- four-hour period, and said "When we finished, Staten Island wasn't any the worse for it." Wonder if any Staten Islander who were around then remember it?

And so April 11 - 16 is Fluxfest NYC and Saturday April 16 the Fluxus artist will once again venture onto the ferry and this time into Staten Island. What will happen that day?

Art Nurses checking the pulse from SI to Manhattan

Escaping a cold, quiet Staten Island, Day de Dada art nurses proceeded to Manhattan at the invitation to be part of the PVE- Performance Video Event. While they had offered their check ups, lollipops and stickers to a few skeptical Staten Island groups the same evening, members of PVE crowd were enthusiastic at the chance to see their creative pulse. Nurse Mary handed out the intake forms to be filled out- "how does creativity effect your body?" and "scars caused by art", and then rewarded the patients when forms were submitted. Art Nurse Viv tweeted the responses (http://twitter.com/#!/DaydeDada) and it was projected live for the audience to see the collective art pulse, a mixture of physical and emotional pain, mixed with some satisfied creatives.

The program notes for PVE stated it as a dynamic multidisciplinary evening of experimental video, performance art and conceptual music showcasing ground breaking artists. There were several unique pieces, one of the best- Daniel Phiffer- (http://phiffer.org) photographing the scene with no memory card in the camera so the image only lasts until the next picture is taken. There is no eternity for the image, except the grainy second generation iphone image from  a viewer...


PVE- New Media Caucus Event
February 12, 2011
University of the Streets
130 East 7th Street, NY

The New Media Caucus (NMC) is a non-profit, international membership organization that advances the conceptual and artistic use of digital media. The NMC represents artists whose media are expanding with developments in digital technology, and artists working in newly emerging media such as robotics, virtual reality, interactive and installation environments as well as artists working in established digital areas of video, sound and graphics. (During the College Art Association Conference)

“3D SI”

Tom Ronse http://tomasronse.wordpress.com has always been a favorite of mine. Look at what he does, found objects, great compositions, interesting installations. These pieces didn't have the humor that I enjoyed in past work, there is a more serious determination here. We all agreed the room had a surrealistic feeling and Denise Mumm commented on the fact that when Ed Davin stood behind the one piece he became part of it, so I photographed Denise in that way. It does have a Magritte like feeling.

At the end of the opening when the space cleared out it appeared- the precious piece. It was right next to the door!  I had walked by it a few times, but of course could not see it until there was quiet. A quiet bell.

“3D SI”
New work by 8 Staten Island Sculptors
Pat DeCicco, Steve Foust, Joyce Goldstein, Susan Grabel, Ann Marie McDonnell, Janice Patrignani, Tomas Ronse, Linda Wasylewski

February 5 - 27, 2011
ART at Bay, 70 Bay St. S.I.,N.Y 10301
Hours: Saturdays and Sundays in February noon – 6 pm

Inside My Brain

marycampbell.net