Wild Things at Reginald Chavez!

 The latest recycled activity at Reginald Chavez was the construction of squirrels. Making thee squirrels is extremely simply and requires minimal supplies. For this project we used paper cups, pieces of cardboard, newspaper, buttons for the noses, and an old Christmas wreath for the tail.

Albuquirky Little Houses Silent Auction -- A SUCCESS!

THANK YOU TO ALL OF THE ARTISTS who donated their precious, creative renditions of "Albuquirky Little Houses" for our annual fundraiser! Your creative energy and dedication allowed our fundraiser to be a success!

We had over 145 artists create 178 little houses which were put up for auction at Sumner & Dene during Frank McCullough's opening reception. 

(A huge thank you to Roy, Sumner & Dene & Frank!)

People were flurrying around from little house to little house to decide which ones to place bids on -- sometimes outbidding one another on a favorite artist/rendition. 

The end result is that all of Sumner & Dene's, OFFCenter's and other artists in the city helped to raise over $5500 for OFFCenter so that we can keep providing a safe studio space, art materials, workshops and outreach programming FREE of charge to the public!

 

Thanks also to the House Tour Committee volunteers, home owners and House Tour ticket purchasers which all helped to raise another $5000 for OFFCenter Community Arts Project.

We truly believe art making builds community and with this fundraiser, we see how the community cares to keep free art making opportunities for everyone available!

THANK YOU EVERYONE who attended, made or purchased little houses, went on the house tour, volunteered their homes or their time!

Reginald Chavez Mask Making

Things are winding down at Reginald Chavez Elementary as the last  of school are finishing up and summer days are fast approaching, last week students used recycled materials found around Off Center students set out constructing their own masks.

Rick Gutierrez Left-Handed Recital & Celebration

This is Rick's second iCreate recital. The guitar he earned for his first recital, July 30th 2010 was stolen. This event presented an adventurous challenge. He decided to embark on completing the iCreate program, but this time left handed.



Congratulations Rick and continue playing the sweet tunes that we all enjoy! Maybe put a GPS tracking device on this one? :)


( Rick playing "Only Blue Sky", right-handed)

Deanna Sauceda's Exhibit at OFFCenter

As many of you know, the "Away!" Mountains, Rivers & Canyons Exhibit which took place in January was a great success. What some of you may not have known is that one of our local news anchor, Deanna Sauceda, was a contributing artist. She attended the Drawing & Painting Workshops on Tuesdays and Thursdays and before she knew it, she had a lovely portfolio. In the above clip, Deanna Sauceda recaps on her experiences at OFFCenter and her artistic journey. Enjoy!

Birdhouses at Reginald Chavez Elementary

Thanks to a generous donation of several dozen gourds by Off Center employee Kelsi Sharp the latest project at Reginald Chavez Elementary was the construction of birdhouses made of gourds. Simply by drilling a small opening in the gourds, emptying the seeds from the inside, and attaching string to hang the gourds with to the top small bird houses were easily constructed. Students enjoyed painting their own designs on the outside of their gourds and were able to take them home to hang them up!

UNM Service Corp Outreach

On Friday April 6th Kelsi, Brandon, and Isaac, all UNM Service Corp members working here at Off Center, were asked to lead an art activity on self awareness at a UNM Service Corp meeting. In doing this they conducted an "exquisite corpse" activity splitting the UNM students into groups of three and having each student draw one section of the human body(head, torso, or legs) without their other members seeing what they were drawing. Students were supposed to illustrate what they saw in themselves onto the paper, in addition to drawing the bodies students wrote poems of self awareness in a similar fashion. After everyone was done groups presented the bodies they had drawn and read their groups poems aloud, the end results were very impressive and everyone had a great time!

OFFCenter Celebrates Women & Creativity Month

 

Portals: Transformations & Transitions is the latest art show at OFFCenter. The exhibit features the art of sixty-five women from the community. We are thrilled to have received so many submissions for the exhibit, including multiple generations of female artists. Portals will be on display until March 28th.

Pinwheel Post!

Another week of art at Reginald Chavez, the wind was still blowing and causing ideas to spin around the studio. When pinwheels were decided upon, needless to say the students were pretty excited about the project!


Equipped with their art supplies students set about customizing their own pinwheels, the excitement only increased as students discovered how their new pinwheels could spin with the slightest breeze or movement!

Reginald Chavez Arts Program

For the past nine years Off Center Arts has been doing weekly art lessons for the after school students at Reginald Chavez Elementary, this past Thursday one of Off Center's new employees Isaac Burleigh gave a simple kite construction lesson. Kids had a blast building their simple kites out of construction paper, shish-kabob sticks, and ribbon. Taking advantage of Albuquerque's windy weather the students enjoyed putting their kites to use outside!

Shoe Seance

The shoe seance was a success! Ayren Valerie taught the workshop, encouraging the attendees to paint and otherwise embellish their lifeless shoes. The end results were very exciting, including several pairs of funky boots and a pair of updated golf sneakers. The workshop was part of the ReEnVision project, a series of workshops emphasizing finding creative uses for discarded materials. The ReEnVision workshops are culminating in an exhibit of recycled art called Dumpsite Grotto. 

Media Arts Students Participate in Printmaking Workshop

Adabel Allen, an art educator at OFFCenter, facilitated a printmaking workshop several weeks ago. An art class from the Media Arts Collaborative Charter School came into the studio and used recycled milk cartons as a tool to create prints. Students were asked to bring in a sketch and converted it into a plate for printmaking. It was the first printmaking experience for many of the students, who demonstrated a natural talent, as shown above. This workshop was part of a series of workshops made possible, in part, thanks to a grant from the Wolf Kahn & Emily Mason Foundation.

The WE ART THE PEOPLE FOLK FESTIVAL 2011 was terrific!!!!! I had several people, both vendors and attendees tell me that this was the best organized year ever for the festival. Also heard some folks say this is their favorite Abq. festival!! This is a great mid September tradition for OFFCenter and hopefully will be for years to come. The kids area was hopping all day long with beautiful hats and pin wheels emerging from the art making tent, children having fun with hula hoops, and being thoroughly entertained by Pink Elephant and Clan Tynker! The group paper tube sculpture and giant coloring book/painting canvases were great.... can't wait to see the new OFFBags made from the canvas. Come shop for one in the OFFCenter retail shop in the studio! I got a fantastic henae design on my entire arm and enjoyed seeing lots of lovely painted faces walking all around the park. Thanks to all the dancers and musicians too for creating such a festive day. It's a gift to see all the art vendors and witness the enormous variety of creativity in our community. Yea for Chami and all the other folks who worked so hard to make the 2011 We Art the People Folk Festival happen so wonderfully! Better and better each year :) Hope to see lots of fun 2011 Folk Fest pictures here and on the website soon!

OFFCenter Fun at RT66Summerfest

Ron and D'Ana helping families make art together

Thanks to all those who helped make the RT66Summerfest Community Art Project fun for all the families who participated! Art Educator Topher House volunteered to manage the project and helped families build and decorate paper towers out of old newspapers. (Thank you Jo Tabacchi for coming up with the activity!) OFFCenter's Executive Director, Ron Breen and Board President Margaret Lopez and Board Member D'Ana Alderate were there to make it a success on the streets! 

Topher House guiding kids on the construction

Thanks also to the volunteers and interns who helped prepare for the project. This was truly an event where art making = community. Unfortunately the weather cancelled the second half of building -- but now we have leftovers to keep building art together in the Community Art section (alongside the Giant Coloring Books) at the 9th Annual "We Art the People!" Folk Art Festival this Sept. 11th!

OFFCenter's "Nature of Happiness" Exhibit Opens at Main Public Library

OFFCenter's "Nature of Happiness" Printmaking/Book Arts Exhibit at the Main Public Library is now open!

Congratulations to all those who submitted art made during the Nature of Happiness Workshops -- the exhibit is in the display cases on the first and second floors of the Main Public Library. We will have another 6 months of workshops coming your way, as well as another exhibit in November at OFFCenter Community Arts...so stay tuned to your emails and call/email to sign up for a workshop you want to attend, because they fill up fast. Priority seating will be given to newcomers, however, so that as many people as possible can reap the benefits of learning printmaking/book arts.

July 2 - July 29th Main Public Library - 5th & Copper Hours: Mon, Thu-Sat, 10am-6pm; Tues & Wed 10am-7pm

Parking: Free parking for up to 2 hours in the Very Special Arts Garage at 5th and Copper. Bring your parking stub to the circulation desk for validation. There is also on street metered parking.  As a reminder, once you take a Nature of Happiness workshop, your allowed to come into the studio and check out inks/presses during open studio time on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 1 - 7 pm. Master Printmaker Adabel Allen will be on hand during those days/times to assist you with press setup and any other further technical questions.