Tag: garden

Summer Farm Camp in Monterey County

Melissa Schilling Art and Community, Workshops

This summer, Project HOPE Art’s Melissa Schilling will lead two weeks of day camp at Monkeyflower Ranch home of Garden Variety Cheese Dairy. Children ages 8+ are welcome to sign up for a fantastical adventure featuring a bevy of activities related to food, nature, farming and art.

Art Farm Camp

Cost is $265
(Two Scholarships per week are available – More info below)

Wise Elders The Wise Elders

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Project Description

FACT:  The life expectancy for Haiti is low 50 years for men and 53 years for women.

FACT: Only 53% of Haitians can read and write

FACT: Only about 40% of school-aged children attend school regularly

FACT: Only about 10% of all Haitian children enrolled in elementary school go on to a high school

 
PROJECT HOPE ART, WITH THE HELP OF DONORS LIKE YOU, ARE DEDICATED TO MAKING A CHANGE.

The Wise Elders began as a workshop lead by Esnold Jure with his fellow faculty members (Winter, Gueldy, and Lisane). This eight week project engaged forty-six students.  The objective over the eight weeks was to encourage the Haitian youth to reach out to the elders of their community.  Through the process of photographic documentation and interviews, students helped the Wise Elders preserve  memories, reflect on  accomplishments, and share their voices.

Subjects emphasized:

  • English
  • Writing
  • Photography
  • Public speaking/ Presentations
  • Interviewing skills

Workshop Budget breakdown

  • Tuition per student: $25 (Tuition for 46 students: $1,150)
  • Salary per teacher: $100 (Salary for 4 teachers: $400)
  • Education for our youth: PRICELESS

Documents

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Sample Schedule:

  • 11am-11:30am: Scientific Sketch Journal Warm-Up (Put on your Scientist Hat and learn to sketch nature like a real Scientist)
  • 11:30-12pm: Nature Hike to observe farm animals and the garden
  • 12-12:30 Lunch on the Farm Patio with homemade lemonade
  • 12:30-1:30 Papier Mache Sheep Sculptures
  • 1:30-2 Free Play
  • 2-3pm: Bread Baking in the Pizza Oven

Summer Camp Flyer

Interested in securing a spot for your child?

Wonderful! Mosey on over to Garden Variety Cheese for more information about the $150 non-refundable deposit and have any additional questions you may have answered!

Scholarships! Scholarships! Scholarships!

Two spots are reserved for low-income campers per session. Low-Income spots cost just $50 for Art & Farm Camp. Simply write a short essay explaining why you would like to attend Art & Farm Camp. Bonus Points if you can amaze us with fun facts about sheep and lambs. Extra Special Bonus Points if you include an illustration of a sheep or a lamb.

Mail your essay to (deadline June 15th):

Miss Mimi
Art & Farm Camp
1480 San Miguel Road
Watsonville, CA 95076

The Traveling Rainbow Cabinet of Fun

Melissa Schilling Join the Team, Partners, Thank Yous, Visual Storytelling

pha-art-center_final-concept_b-1-e1355946878102 The only thing that beats a good plan, is a better plan. We find that collaboration brings us closer and closer to the best plans in the world.

Enormous thanks to Sam Bloch and Elizabeth Marley for collaborating on the early vision of our art center / storage container. Immense, gratitude to the NGO family over at Communitere for supporting our ideas, visions and plans. Especially Delphine Bedu and Caroline Etienne for handling so many nitty gritty details on our behalf.

In 2013, our rainbow cabinet was built by master craftsman, Jason DeCook and then painted in the colors of the rainbow by our friend, Aimee Gaines. Our Lady of Art was created by our friend Julie Koopman and she stands watch over all the visiting artists and their projects.

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From our little spot in the workshop at Communitere we launched a number of projects, including Let There Be Light 1 and Let There Be Light 2. Thank you to artists Jenni Ward, Luc Winter, Racine Polycarpe, Claudel Cassius, Jason DeCook, Aimee Gaines, Shrine, Moon and Jade for all the hard work to make art in Cite Soleil.

857808_10152525576805567_1944484788_oFor the last two years our rainbow cabinet has lived at Haiti Communitere stuffed to the brim with paint, paper, pastels, brushes and a ton of glitter.
For the last two and a half years we have held puppet shows, dance parties, recycled trash makeovers and more than one bicycle blender fruit smoothie extravaganza.

Haiti Communitere was a perfect home for us and all of our sparkling trinkets of inspiration and creativity. Free spirited artists must keep moving, so onward we go.

On February 15th our little Cabinet of Fun bid adieu to HC. We hope it left a trail of glitter so everyone could find their way to us in our new home in Pacot. Our cabinet is now parked in the Pacot neighborhood next to the Hotel Olofson. The keepers of the cabinet are 20 young ladies who are excited to put its contents to good use.

And with our move, comes new projects and collaborations …

  • We will be working with Emy Morse at her art school in Montan Noir.
  • We are also launching an art project with Human Rights activist and FOSAJ artist, Charlotte Charles and The Haiti Initiative’s Kara Lightburn in Jacmel.
  • And this summer we will be launching a summer gardening class with Rebuild Globally and SOIL.

    • “These are the days of miracle and wonder. This is the long distance call.” -Paul Simon

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    Rooz Cafe presents . . . The Industry Collaborative Show!

    Melissa Schilling 2014 Gardening Class, Fundraiser, short story series

    Join us for a Happy Hour Reception at Rooz Cafe.
    1918 Park Blvd, Oakland CA 94606
    Thursday, June 12th 6-10pm

    Mimosas, Beer and Espresso await you along with the sounds of Brass Tax dj’s Ernie Trevino, Alex Mace and maybe a sneak attack by Denim Ding Dong (DDD)aaaand an ambient musical performance by local, Oakland duo Charlemagne Charmaine and William Korte.
    (Catharsis for Cathedral, Brasil, Drifting House)

    Featuring POP-UP PONCHOS by SuperSugarRayRay
    and a pop-up jewelry show by Tidalware Jewelry (Sharla Pidd).

    6-7:30 Charlemagne Charmaine and William Korte
    7:30-10 Brass Tax

    …About the Art Show…
    Industry: an activity or domain in which a great deal of time or effort is expended a group show examining hard work in specific artistic genres and spheres of life

    Martin Goicoechea: Women
    Exploring the female form through a variety of mixed media methods including: acrylics, transfers, watercolor, ink, wood block and charcoal.
    Contact: Martin.Goicochea@me.com

    Melissa Schilling: Automobile Photography
    The automotive industry in the United States began in the 1890s and, as a result of the size of the domestic market and the use of mass-production, rapidly evolved into the largest in the world. These photographs represent frozen in time moments in Havana, Cuba where many cars from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s permeate the roadways and garages.
    It was such a thrill (on blueberry hill) to experience car travel the way my grandparents experienced it.
    www.melissaschilling.com

    Nick Huckleberry: Recycled Creations
    Its overwhelming what is thrown out these days. A large busy metal shop may throw out bunches of pieces as general waste to them but gold to the artist. I have salvaged most of my materials, always trying to bring nature to the pieces by incorporating organic shapes. Bringing new life to old waste is a way of using energies of the old and introducing them to the new, creating a balanced harmony.
    www.trueburningreality.com

    Project HOPE Art: Cyanotype
    Art in Haiti usually requires less materials and more creativity. For this project we needed only the sun, vegetables from our garden and a few chemicals.
    Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print. Engineers used the process well into the 20th century as a simple and low-cost process to produce copies of drawings, referred to as blueprints. The process uses two chemicals: ammonium iron(III) citrate and potassium ferricyanide.

    Students in a Gardening Class in Port au Prince, Haiti created these cyanotype prints in February 2014. This was their very first time mixing chemicals and using their “design” eye to arrange kitchen utensils, fruits and vegetables on textured watercolor paper for 10 minutes under the brilliant Caribbean sun.
    www.projecthopeart.org

    Sarah Miller: Textile Photography
    Laundry and People on the streets of Calcutta.
    Contact: sarahmiller23@gmail.com

    Folk Pumpkins

    Melissa Schilling Art Projects 1 Comment

    We love practicing art projects with local kids using discarded materials. In this case, we made folk art pumpkins from newspaper, scrap paper and leftover yarn & twine. Imaginations unite!

    The kids and I had a frank discussion about all the different shapes, sizes, colors, textures and types of pumpkins. It was really sweet for everyone to come to the realization that there is not a perfect pumpkin and each and every different pumpkin had its endearing qualities.

    Then we stuck our hands wrist deep in glue and shaped our own special folk pumpkins from newspaper. Once they were dry we used yarn, raffia, crepe & tissue paper to create multi-textured finishes.

    I super love getting messy with these little loves.
    Be sure to post on our facebook page, photos of your own homemade folk pumpkins!

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    …

    It’s not too late to do this at home!
    You will need:
    Tissue paper or paper towels
    Scissors
    Non-toxic glue
    Paint brush (to spread glue on the paper and help keep your hands clean too)

    Directions:
    1. Start by crinkling newspaper into a ball to create your desired pumpkin size and shape.
    2. Crinkle newspaper to create a stem shape.
    3. With the paint brush, spread glue around the top of the pumpkin and glue the stem part to your pumpkin figure.

    Tip: Experiment with paints and glitter to create a more colorful or festive look to your pumpkin. You might try painting the stem or creating patterns and mixing colors.

    gardening program and the art + botany lab

    Melissa Schilling Urban Agriculture

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    The 2014 Project HOPE Art Gardening Class will take place each Saturday at the Project HOPE Art Center at Haiti Communitere from 8am-11am.
    The goal of the class is to teach fundamentals of gardening to 12 students and one class Supervisor so they may return to their neighborhoods and spread knowledge about urban agronomy. We want to prepare each student to grow their own food at home.

    For our first foray, we’ve rounded up 12 students from a variety of neighborhoods, backgrounds, education levels and ages to come together and learn a skill that will help them feed their families and communities.

    Class Instructor: TBD/Daniel Tillias
    Class Supervisor: Luc Winter

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    Week 1-4: Basics of Gardening and Mapping Out Your Garden; Basic Husbandry (Rabbit Keeping)
    Week 5-9: Soil Health: Composting and Vermicomposting; Moringa Trees and Soil Erosion
    Week 10-14: Urban Gardening: Growing Vegetables in Containers
    Week 15-19: Harvesting and Seed Saving
    Week 20-24: Cooking with Moringa, Vegetables, Fruits and Herbs
    Week 25-29: Aquaponics: Using Tilapia Fish
    Week 30-32: MultiCropping and MonoCropping

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    Measuring Success: Each student in the class will keep a journal. In it they will be asked to write down notes, ideas, recipes and activities. We will invite local artists to attend the class and help the students learn botanical drawing. The students will take a field trip to the the Jaden Tap Tap Garden in Cite Soleil to see a working garden. At the end of the class, each student will be given seeds and asked to start their own mini-garden at home.

    Wolson

    Student journal entries will be combined to create a gardening handbook.

    Download our 2012 Gardening HandBook, There Grows The Neighborhood here.

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    Class Supervisor Luc Winter will use his knowledge from the class to start his own community garden at his school in Bwa Nef in Cite Soleil.

    Our gardening class will run from March, 2014 – November 2014 on Saturdays at the Project HOPE Art Center. For the finale of the class, each student will be given seeds and a class generated gardening handbook to create their own mini container garden at home.

    The young students in the class range across five neighborhoods and span educational, income and resource levels. They are 12 to 16 years old. All incredibly motivated to learn Urban Agronomy.

    Meet our Students (coming soon!)