ArtBOX
DCCP is happy to announce the launch of ArtBOX: a fundraiser that connects patrons, artists, and DCCP with local Detroit philanthropic organizations.
DCCP is teaming up with five photographers to create a limited edition of 25 ArtBOXs. Each box includes five signed prints selected by the donating photographers. Those collection of prints are verified by each photographer. Prints are made with high quality archival paper and are 8.5 x 11 in size and an edition of 25. Prints are signed and numbered by the photographer. Proceeds will go to fund Focus Hope's the Excel Photography Program projects budget. Artists who have generously donated a special editions of their prints include, Dave Jordano, Carlos Diaz, Amy Friend, Anastasia Samoylova, and Grant Gill.
About Focus: HOPE's the Excel Photography Program
Focus: HOPE's the Excel Photography Program is a rigorous experiential learning opportunity that serves underserved 5th- 8th grade Detroit students year-round both afterschool and through the summer. At its core, Excel is an arts-based youth development program; the central goals are to foster creative self-expression, develop technical skills, cultivate constructive life and leadership skills, and build community connections.
The Excel educational process provides students with an optimal opportunity for personal achievement via small project teams comprised of a low student to teacher ratio of 7:1. Using DSLR cameras, students focus on photographic aesthetics and technical techniques with assignments concentrating on a range of photographic genres. Field trips take students to places beyond the city, to which they would never be exposed to if not for Excel. Locations range from urban centers to metropolitan parks to rural farm centers. Excursions to the Detroit Institute of Arts and local galleries is also a critical component of the program where students experience the work of historical and contemporary artists first-hand. Furthermore, students are often invited to the College for Creative Studies to use their professional light studios and to learn the foundations of Photoshop using the college’s top-of-the-line Mac computer labs. In the winter, assignments using artificial light sources are integrated into the curriculum focusing on the art of portraiture, commercial, and still life portrait photography. Monthly, students have the opportunity to edit and critique their work to build their critical thinking and communication skills.
Throughout the summer months, lesson plans focus on community placemaking where students have the opportunity to push back against the blight and the conditions in their neighborhood, and begin to take a stand and make a difference. This exciting component brings students and community together to revitalize the neighborhood. Abandoned houses become visual signs of hope through 3’ x 4’ photographic installations that illustrate the insight of the youth, building on the themes: “We are here”; “We have a voice”; “We will make a difference”; and “We have dreams and vision”. The summer component concludes with a reception to officially unveil the new works and honor the students’ creative achievements to celebrate the student’s success, an annual exhibition of student work is featured in the Focus: HOPE Community Arts Gallery. To prepare for the exhibition, students edit their portfolio and select images to showcase their style and best work. Students also compose their own artist bios and titles with captions for the exhibition, in addition to framing the whole show.
About Focus: HOPE
Focus: HOPE was founded in 1968 as an organization dedicated to intelligent and practical solutions to the problems of hunger, economic disparity, inadequate education, and racial divisiveness.
Recognizing the dignity and beauty of every person, we pledge intelligent and practical action to overcome racism, poverty and injustice. And to build a metropolitan community where all people may live in freedom, harmony, trust and affection. Black and white, yellow, brown and red from Detroit and its suburbs of every economic status, national origin and religious persuasion we join in this covenant. —Adopted March 8, 1968
WHERE YOUR MONEY GOES:
50% of the proceeds will go toward funding Focus: HOPE’s Focus on the Mission program. A workshop for high school students, Focus on the Mission challenges today’s generation to explore the role of diversity in their lives through the lens of a camera. Students interact with new and different people, become familiar with many cultural areas in metropolitan Detroit, and learn basic camera techniques from professional photographers working in the field. Diversity presentations, art activities and traditional foods provide an introduction to other cultures. With this fresh awareness, students and their mentors travel to relevant neighborhoods and landmarks in Detroit. With their cameras, students document the richness of the historic past and the colorful tapestry of the present. This program empowers them with the creative tools and understanding necessary to weave a vital future for the metropolitan community.
The remaining 50% of funds raised will go toward DCCP’s special projects budget. As a non-profit, this monetary support will allow DCCP to organize special exhibitions and print publications throughout the year.
A limited edition of 25
(Each box includes five signed prints selected by the donating photographers.)
$250.00
$10.00 shipping/handling/insurance.
***Additional cost for international shipping.***
For further information regarding Art Box artists and availability, you can contact us at info@detroitccp.org.
Dave Jordano
Dave Jordano was born in 1948 in Detroit, Michigan. He received his BFA in photography from the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit1974. In 1977 he established a highly successful commercial photography studio in Chicago, shooting major advertising campaigns for companies such as Crate & Barrel, Starbucks, Sears, Nestle, Kraft Foods, General Mills, Nintendo, and Kellogg’s.
As mid-career fine art photographer, he was awarded honorable mention in the Houston Center for Photography’s Long Term Fellowship Project in 2003, and received the Curator’s Choice Award the following year. He is a three-time top 20 finalist in the “Critical Mass” national photographic book award in Portland, OR. In 2015 he was awarded the Peter Urban Legacy Award from the Griffin Museum of Photography. He is a finalist in the Outwin-Boochever Portrait Competition from the Nation Portrait Gallery, Washington DC, and received the prestigious $50,000 AIMIA-AGO Photography Prize in Canada. Jordano has exhibited both internationally and nationally.
His work is included in several private, corporate and museum collections, most notably the permanent collection of The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Detroit Art Institute, The Harris Bank Collection, and the Mary & Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University.
His current book titled, “Detroit: Unbroken Down” was published in September of 2015 by PowerHouse Books and has won several “Best of 2015” Photo Book Awards. Dave Jordano currently lives in Chicago, Illinois.
Carlos Diaz
Carlos Diaz is a Professor of Photography and former department chair at the college for Creative Studies where he has taught for 32 years. Prior to his position at CCS, Diaz taught at Bowling Green State University and the University of Michigan, School of Art.
Diaz was awarded sabbatical in the winter 2015 to continue work on ROUGE, The Legacy of Detroit and the Autoworker and traveled to Japan to begin a new project photographing landscape and meditation gardens at Shinto Shrines and Buddist Temples. His work has been included in numerous collections, public and private, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Ross Museum of Art; the Detroit Institute of Arts; the Museum of the City of New York; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. He is currently represented by the David Klein Gallery and formally represented by the Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago, the Sarah Morthland Gallery in NYC and Photo-eye Gallery in Sante Fe, New Mexico.
Before his formal studies in the arts, Diaz was a mechanical draftsman and designer in numerous capacities. He is the recipient of a University of Michigan Rackham Graduate Fellowship (3 years) and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Ford Foundation, NEA Midwest, Polaroid Foundation, Michigan Council for the Arts; Individual Artist Grants (3 years) and the Kresge Community Arts Grant and bestowed the Wayne County Artistic Excellence and Community Commitment Award.
Amy Friend
Friend has exhibited nationally and internationally, including exhibitions at the Galerie Riviere/Faiveley (Paris, France), Cordon/Potts Gallery (San Francisco), Houston Center for Photography, Photoville (Brooklyn, New York), 555 Gallery (Boston), Onassis Cultural Center (Greece), Picture Gallery , (USA) and has participated in GuatePhoto, Guatamela (2015) and follows that with a solo exhibition at Rodman Hall in Saint Catharines, Ontario .
In 2013, 2014 and 2015 Friend was selected as one of the top 50 photographs in the juried Critical Mass International Photography Competition and published a monograph of the Dare alla Luce series in December of 2015.
Her work has been featured in select publications such as: California Sunday Magazine, Musee Magazine, Contemporary Portraits, (Index Books, Barcelona), Creative Block, (Chronicle Books), EyeMazing (Thames and Hudson), Supernatural (&Magazine, Israel), Magenta Flash Forward Emerging Photography Competition (Canada), Virginia Quarterly (USA), Dishun Magazine (Thailand), and The Walrus (Canada).
Anastasia Samoylova
Grant Gill
Grant Gill is an emerging artist based in Milwaukee, WI, and is the Projects Editor and a Contributing Writer for LENSCRATCH, managing content such as The States Project and Content-Aware. He completed a BFA in photography from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design in 2013. Recently, Grant had his first solo exhibition in Chamber, and was also a recipient of the Mary L. Nohl Suitcase Export Fund to exhibit at Skylab Gallery. He has exhibited both locally and nationally.