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Archive: Community

 

“Just as there is no self except in relation to other selves, so there is no artist except in relation to other artists. The problem of identity for me is to work out my relation to the artists and art of my immediate environment.”
Jack Tworkov

Insightful artmaking often requires the artist to seek solitude. Young artists and older artists wishing to return to more disciplined habits often look to organized arts programs and establishments to find sanctuary from the distractions of day-to-day life. Therefore, even the most solitary artist benefits from the community that “spirits” the discipline with continual validation and systems of support.

San Francisco has a growing number of arts programs that provide significant opportunities designed to benefit youth. In order to participate in many of these programs, however, the young person must be able to take on the normal responsibilities of a supervised member of any functioning family.
Unfortunately, a growing number of kids do not have the necessary personal supervision and support at home to insure their ability to comply with the art program’s standards of attendance, behavior and organization. There are sometimes transportation, logistical and financial difficulties. Learning differences and cultural barriers may preclude participation as well.
ArtSeed provides connections and behind-the-scenes support to individual students whose disadvantages would otherwise keep them from participating in the programs that could benefit them most. Through pen-pal-like exchanges of images and ideas with students at other sites, fieldtrips and collaborative culminating events artists are better able to reflect on the age in which they are working while opening up new worlds for otherwise untouched neighborhoods and individuals.
ArtSeed acts as impresario, looking out for educational, exhibition, publication, and award opportunities that integrate underserved youngsters into new relationships and environments.
While exposing students to the broadest range of materials, techniques and approaches to expressing their own disciplined individuality, ArtSeed seeks to bridge generational gaps and build ongoing connections between people of different races, religions, and lifestyles. We believe that a radically inclusive, but individually focused, grasp of arts education and community will help us to discover who we are in relation to the world around us.
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