Spring Showcase and the end of the year are almost upon us.  The 2019 - 2020 school year is our 20th anniversary, and while it brought us some unexpected twists and turns, we are proud to say our school is going strong.  We look forward to seeing where we are in another 20 years.  Students and Staff have been hard at work this week putting the finishing touches on their Showcase Exhibits which will be completely virtual this year.  Let's check in and see what everyone worked on last week...

Students completed their short films for our Virtual Spring Showcase and the results are fantastic.  With their individual films combined, students have created a Stop Motion Short Film Collection over 20 minutes in length.  This Collection will debut in our Virtual Spring Showcase!  Students are currently working on a Zine that chronicles their personal quarantine stories, and some might even submit their Zines to Chicago Zine Fest for their upcoming youth voice readings! We are excited to see if any of their work is accepted!

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Let's just say our Dancers are "Feelin' Good!"

Mr. Alex & Mr. Matt have been collecting up a lot of work from their students, and it all looks AMAZING!  Considering all of the obstacles the students have faced, this work is a testament to the talent and hard work of our Drawing & Painting class.  We are excited to honor them.  Here's a little teaser of the latest work that will be in the show!  To see this and more, join us for our Virtual Showcase!

Our photography students worked with the photo teaching team to create and curate an original photo series. They experience photography as a way to communicate and heal.  

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It's hard to believe we are already half way through May, and that graduation looms ahead for all our Seniors at Advanced Arts.  Some of our Seniors have been taking classes at our school for multiple years, and it will be hard to imagine our halls next year without them walking within them.

Our Virtual Spring Showcase is Friday May 29th, and all our classes have been hard at work in their virtual classrooms preparing in their own ways.  While we won't be able to celebrate in our large Center Space Gallery, we will still be united digitally, in celebration.

Let's check in on what our classes were up to last week!

This class had a blast last week catching up with each other.  This classroom opens an hour earlier than any other in our school and it is often full before class with students getting a head start on work, catching up with each-other, and sharing stories about their individual days.  Utilizing virtual classrooms simply cannot substitute the shared comradely found within "The Lair," which is the students' affectionate name for their tiny but mighty classroom.  This week teachers made time for everyone to share updates on their individual lives, talk about cool recipes, share what cartoons everyone should be watching, and reminisce on silly inside classroom jokes.  Even apart, our animators have a strong community.

Students have been working on the finishing touches for their "Main Stop Motion Event" for Spring Showcase.  This project from pre-production to post has taken a little over a month, and the students used this time to prepare storyboards, plan sets, film, and edit their animations.  All Stop Motion Animation has been done within the free app, Stop Motion Studio.  The class is excited to show everyone what they have been up to in this new project!

Our Dance class spent the week choreographing a special COVID-19 Dance about dealing with the virus that will debut at our Digital Spring Showcase!

Our Drawing and Painting students are racing towards the finish line!  With the deadline for our Virtual Showcase coming up, the work is pouring in!  Though we are all a little sad that we won't have a traditional showcase with physical work this Spring, students have been working really hard and sending in some amazing art.  Their inspiration and excitement is contagious.  Check out just a few examples, but by all means, stay tuned to see all of their portfolio work at our Showcase!

Photo students produced some thoughtful work as they walked in the shoes of Alessandra Sanguinetti. Dancing between poetic, staged and documentary, Sanguinetti's photos key in on details of a gesture, a texture, the light or an environment.

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Animation & Sequential Arts students have been hard at work in their individual homes turned film-sets for their final Stop Motion Animation project of the year.  Students have been working for a full two weeks on this short film project, and at the end will have created a minute and a half long video that follows the storyboards that were turned in for approval before project production began.  Film subjects are so diverse, and the genre really allows for students to show off their individual styles and set design.  Students will also be showing work on Saturday May 15th at Chicago Zine Fest 2020, a self-publishing festival that has gone digital this year.  We are so excited for these students, as Chicago Zine Fest has become a time honored tradition in Animation & Sequential Arts.  We also would like to congratulate Joana Rodriguez, Lilian Gragert, Anyah Thompson, Caleb Hardaway, Itzel Saenz, Cindy Phan, Vance Lira, Alessandra Montero, Jazmin Hernandez, Faith Lasley, Abby Moon-Sarudi, Metzli Castellanos, and Aaron Bergante; these students all made it into the All-City Spring Visual Arts Exhibition!  This is the highest amount of Animation Students we have ever had accepted into this show, congratulations all!

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Our dance class has been hard at work as always, even though they are missing their lovely studio at Gallery 37. It is inspiring to see our dedicated dancers turning their homes, lawns, and even neighborhood parks into their dance studios.  Watch their latest video compilation titled "Dance Inspirations!"

We have a real cool update from our Drawing & Painting class this week.

When life gives you lemons, the best thing to do is make lemonade.  Our Drawing & Painting student Beata Semeniuk found herself without access to quality paints, so she did some research and figured out how to make her own paints! 

"So I really wanted to paint, but the paint I have at home is really crummy and every time I started to paint I hated it from the very first seconds.  So anyways I researched how to make your own paint and here are some results. (I used spinach for green, orange zest with powdered sugar for yellow(boiled), beetroot for red and strong brewed coffee for brown. I added some egg yolk to all of these (because that's what google said to do, but it actually worked). And then I also mixed some species with linseed oil (turmeric, sweet pepper, ground allspice)). The results are not astonishing (not that i was expecting to make Rembrandt quality paint) but i did have some fun!" - Beata Semeniuk

This is amazing work Beata, we all want to try making our own paint now.  Check out her results below!

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Students practiced breathing exercises this week following along with Mrs. Hendricks' instructions and prepared for Spring Showcase.

A Week in Reflection, in the words of our Vocal Arts Students:

Adrianna Sykes:
I have learned half of a song on my piano,  and I’m doing okay.  But I need more concentration on my school work.

Johnny Raguay, Jr.:
I recently celebrated my 18th Birthday on May 2nd. I am so happy and blessed to start becoming the man I want to be. I need to concentrate and get my school work out of my way, because I am tired of it being the only thing holding me back. 

“I Am So BRAVE” by Stephen Krensky    “I was scared of big dogs.   Then I made a new friend.  I was scared of the water.  Now I love the deep end.  I was scared of the dark.  Then I saw the stars shine.  I was scared of loud horns.  Then I got to beep mine.  I was scared of good-byes.  Now I’m happy to wave.  I’m not scared like before.  I am so brave!”  

Our animation & sequential arts students were hard at work last week.  After getting their storyboard concepts approved, students were allowed to move forward with their Stop Motion Film Projects.  Students must create a film that is at least a minute and a half long and twelve frames per secon using the free app Stop Motion Studio.  With three weeks to work on the film, students are expected to animate thirty frames a week.  Film concepts have ranged from an epic car chase to a fight between chess pieces.  Students are using their homebound environments to their advantage, using rooms and items around the home as set pieces.  The final films will be shown in our virtual Spring Showcase.  Last week the class also submitted work to the All-City Visual Arts show, fingers crossed the pixel art they submitted gets in!

The class continued to work on their anti-viral project.  Here is some student work!

Our dance class celebrated International Dance Day last week with some fun activities, one of which is highlighted in this great video!

​Each week students post things they've been working on!  Many are making great strides in finishing their portfolio.  Some have switched their ideas to reflect our current situation, some making art on Social Distancing, or feelings of isolation.  We've been encouraging students to make art that is close to their experience, to use this time to make art as a kind of visual journal.  There have been some really good beginnings, but more than anything, some very fun afternoons of students working with us on camera via Google Meetup.

Welcome to week two of our remote learning updates.  It's hard to imagine that we will be making these for the rest of the school year.  We are so proud of our #AAPG37 family coming together during these extraordinary times to keep classes active and student creativity flowing. While the magic isn't happening at Gallery 37, our work is happening in homes all over Chicago.  Let's check in with our classes and see what everyone was up to last week...

Our animators spent the week learning about the history of the art of storyboarding.  A storyboard is a visual organizer of your animation. Storyboards are an important way for producers and directors in the animation industry to show fellow animators and project contributors the story via a series of cells. Storyboards explain what is happening in a scene, scene dialog, and outline the project’s story via linear “bite sized” chunks.  You know how architects create Blueprints before building houses? Well, the Storyboard is the Blueprint for a film. Storyboards are the ultimate way to plan out your film. By storyboarding a film beforehand, you can completely pre-plan props, settings, camera angles, actor placement and movements, special and practical effects, etc so that when it comes time for actual production everything will work much more efficiently (which will also save the producers $$$$$). Storyboards allow for the right individuals to check for error and fix them before a mistake becomes too large and expensive to fix.

Students were asked to create a storyboard for a long term stop motion animation project.  The production part of this project will take three whole weeks, students will be asked to create a film that is 1.5 minutes long, which is A LOT of pictures to take.  Storyboards have to cover visuals, dialog, and actions that occur in the scene. Storyboards were submitted for approval on Friday and students who now have an approved concept can dive deep into their projects.  We are excited to see what they create.  Check out Alessandra Montero's animated storyboard below:

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