ArtsFirst will include hands-on visual art workshops with faculty from AIB and a pizza lunch followed by an alumni panel discussion.
Alums will highlight their experiences as art students and provide examples of viable career options in the arts following graduation.
Workshops are taught by top AIB faculty and department chairs who are professionals in their fields—design, illustration, photography, animation, computer graphics, and fine arts.
Download Application Form
ArtsFirst Event
May 22, 2013
9:30 am–10:00 am
Participant Registration
AIB Gallery, 700 Beacon Street
Participants pick up workshop registration and packets.
10:00 am-1:00 pm
Artist Career Workshops
Participants choose one; descriptions below.
Designers Make Things That Make Things Happen
Still Life Re-examined and Transformed
Illustration Toolbox
Photo Studio
Animation Festival
1:10 pm-1:45 pm
Pizza Lunch Social
1:45 pm-3:45 pm
Closing Event
Alum Panel Discussion
Students receive participation certificates at conclusion of Closing Event
Application Information
Application deadline:
May 8, 2013
Apply early! Space is limited!
Download Application Form [pdf]
Application requirements:
- Completed ArtsFirst application form
- Completed teacher recommendation form
- 3-5 pieces of artwork (slides, photos, disk, or originals)
- Portfolio requirement waived for students who have previously taken a pre-college course at AIB
- Grade level: current high school Junior
Mail application package to:
ArtsFirst Workshops
The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University
700 Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02215-2598
Location:
The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University
700 Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02215
map and directions
If you have questions or would like an application mailed to you, please contact Linda Harris at 617.585.6724 or lharris@aiboston.edu.
Workshop Descriptions
Designers Make Things That Make Things Happen
Design is a way of thinking, a strategy for action, a method of doing that proposes new and different possibilities. It is how we accomplish change in the world, hopefully for the better. In this workshop we will learn techniques for generating ideas and expressing them so others can understand them and benefit from them. Using our brains, language, memories, imagination, and our shared minds to create ideas and concepts, we will sketch and diagram them, critique them and improve them until we have a coherent presentation of each concept. Then we will outline our strategies for making these things happen in the world.
You will come away with a new goal for your mission of being a designer in this world, a means to achieve it, and hopefully the inspiration to pursue your study of design as a way of being in the world.
Still Life: Re-examined and Transformed
This workshop will provide you the opportunity to explore the creative possibilities of working from still life: using still life as reference for working out ideas, exploring compositional relationships, and further sharpening your observational skills. You will have the chance to stage your own set-ups and/or work from examples provided. Ink, pencil, charcoal, paint, and collage materials will be provided, as well as a variety of surfaces to work on.
Illustration Toolbox
This course will be a brief introduction to what it's like to be an illustrator. You'll be encouraged to let your mind fly, make stuff, and have fun. As a class we will be discussing a variety of concepts and techniques currently used in the field of Illustration and taught in the Illustration Department at AIB. Students will be using Photoshop to explore the use of a variety of exciting, cutting-edge media tools—including adjustment layers, brushes, floating objects—as they create illustrations based on an actual job assignments.
Photo Studio
Photography and the still image are no less current or a part of our culture now than at any time since the 'discovery' of photography in the late 1800s. In our contemporary world, photographers work as artists, sell ideas and products, document events, and have a very immediate impact on how we understand ourselves and the world at large while making very personal decisions and choices.
This short workshop will touch on the world of Commercial photography as a starting point for exploring the power of the still image. Setting up a simple studio environment and working with professional lighting and camera equipment to make portraits of workshop participants, we'll explore how seemingly simple choices affect the outcome of the finished image.
Animation Festival
The animation career day workshop will begin with a discussion about animation as an art form and a career. The students will view a variety of animations and hear about the various jobs people can get in the animation industry. This period will include a question and answer session and a class discussion about animation.
Students will then get a mini lesson on some basic animation techniques and will then get to animate their own film using clay and stop motion as well as hand drawn animation on paper. A DVD will be made of all the student work done during the workshop and sent to the students later in the month.
This program is made possible by the generous support of The Ralph Bradley Prizes, The Associated Grant Makers Summer Fund, the Clayton F. and Ruth L. Hawkridge Foundation, and the Fuller Foundation.
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