Summer Youth Photography
Summer Youth Photography is a youth development collaboration between ArtsWestchester and the White Plains Youth Bureau that uses the arts to provide teenagers with on-the-job training and life skills that prepare them for future employment and/or college. Each summer, since 2002, approximately twelve students between the ages 14 to 18 have spent six weeks working with and learning from a professional photographer drawn from ArtsWestchester’s roster of teaching artists.
For the past several years, photographer Rick Falco has served as the students’ mentor and guide. Using state-of-the-art Fuji cameras, the students learn how to handle a camera both technically and as a tool through which to view the world. The students collectively develop a theme, plan their project and a hold a public presentation and exhibition of their work. Four days a week the students gather at the Arts Exchange, ArtsWestchester’s headquarters in downtown White Plains then disperse throughout the city to cover their daily assignments.
In 2009, students learned valuable knowledge about green initiatives, the extreme significance of alternative energy usage and the value of the arts in the community through a generous grant from the New York Power Authority.
This annual project is supported by White Plains Youth Bureau, New York State Education Department 21st Century Community Learning Center; The Honorable Suzi Oppenheimer, New York State Senate 37th District; Key Bank; and cameras donated by Fujifilm Inc.
For information about this program, contact Jessica Cioffoletti, Associate Director of Arts in Education. jcioffoletti@artswestchester.org
