$10,000 will help change the image of Philly’s
public schools.
You’ve heard
the story: despite the determined efforts of parents, educators and advocates,
Philadelphia’s public schools are still under financial siege.
Yet, as an
inquiry-driven, project-based high school, Science Leadership Academy believes
the study and practice of the arts are a fundamental and necessary component of any successful education
-- not a luxury or an expendable line item on a budget. This is true for EVERY student, at EVERY
school.
Thus, in the
midst of a year of extraordinary financial constraints and endless obstacles,
our teachers borrowed, appropriated and repaired enough photography equipment
to offer SLA students the first full-year photography program our school has
ever had.
The results,
posted here in videos and slideshows, have been spectacular. Working five to a camera,
75 students discovered a new passion and a powerful desire to learn more.
But a
passionate teacher, enthusiastic students, and a handful of cameras simply
isn't enough to sustain a viable photography program.
We need a lab!
We need equipment! We need YOUR support!
To be specific,
our student artists cannot currently print their photos because we have no
equipment and cannot afford outside printing. Plus, working 5 to a camera is
surely not ideal.
$10,000 will equip a basic, functional lab.
By a functional
lab we mean up-to-date, working cameras, supports, lights, printers, paper, ink
and software to be used in a dedicated space in our school. (In our dreams, we
will someday have a space to build out a proper darkroom too, in order to teach
traditional printing and give young artists a complete grounding in
photographic process and technique.)
We have
estimated that $10,000 will cover equipment and exhaustible supplies for the
coming year.
Our goal of mid-August
will make the fall program possible.
Help us to
sustain this remarkably successful program for the academic year 2014/15. Our
students have fallen in love with the medium. Your
contribution will help them grow as artists, individuals and citizens.
Thank you for taking our kids’ art
education and their art-making to heart. What you get back will delight your
eyes!
"HANGING BY A SHOESTRING"-
FIRST FRIDAY PHOTO EXHIBITION 6/6/14
Our amazing sponsors recently helped us pull off our first
public exhibition, profiled as a "Top 5 Must See" by Paperclips215, a
prominent online resource for Philadelphia's "First Friday" art
gallery crawls.
More big news: fall 2014
Already, we’ve attracted nationally known photographers as
judges and mentors. Now, our students have been offered their first official
gallery show, this fall at Metropolitan
Gallery 250 . But to take advantage of this opportunity, we need
to be able to print their photos!
Here's a SLIDESHARE of the work that graced the walls (and windows)
of The Neighborhood House on June 6, 2014.
