FRIENDS OF TEEN ARTS

New Jersey State Teen Arts Festival

The New Jersey State Teen Arts Festival has been bringing together teenagers to explore artistic possibilities, share achievements in the arts, and investigate the diverse means of expression by others for 34 years. In recent years, the State Teen Arts Festival has become a pivotal piece in a statewide arts education initiative coordinated by FOTA. It is the grand finale to county teen arts festivals and a place where teenagers - who have created outstanding original works in other arts initiatives - can unveil their accomplishments before a supportive audience of peers and profes-sionals. Additionally, it is a springboard for student involvement into more advanced projects and community out-reach programs. Last May, approximately 7,000 teenagers performed or exhibited at the State Festival, representing 225 different schools from all 21 counties.

The State Teen Arts Festival is a two-day event that happens annually in May on the campus of The College of New Jersey. Events include a student art exhibit; student performances including choral groups, concert bands, orchestras, jazz bands, instrumental and vocal soloists, theatre presentations and dance; poetry readings; a film festival featuring student-produced videos; and workshops led by professional artists. The State Festival is NOT a competition. Performances are not compared or ranked in any way. The focus is on sharing achievements and learning. Critiques by professional artists follow all student performances, both verbally and in writing, and are offered as an instructional tool to guide students in the use of their gifts and provide insight into the creative process.

Workshops at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels, across all artistic disciplines - dance, theatre, creative writing, visual arts, photography, video, and music - are another component of the State Festival. They are devel-oped and taught by working artists and are intended to introduce new art forms and techniques, refine existing skills, and encourage new ways of thinking. Each workshop lasts 1 - 2 hours with a student/artist ratio of no more than 20/1. At the 2002 festival, 238 workshops were offered. A sampling of last year's workshops include: Native American Music led by Valerie Naranjo, percussionist with the Saturday Night Live Band; Playing Shakespeare, led by John Basil, Artistic Director of American Globe Theatre in New York City; Jazz Vocals taught by Dr. Alan Ap-ple, director of the Jazz Studies Program at Kutztown University; Drum Circles led by Glen Fittin, percussionist with the Broadway musical, The Lion King; Puppetry taught by Theresa Sakelarides, President of the New Jersey Puppetry Guild; Guatemalan Weaving with Armando Sosa, a professional, native weaver; The Power of Rhythm, facilitated by Jay Krush of the Grammy award-winning Chestnut Brass Company; and Video Production taught by NJN's Emmy awarding-winning producer, John Barra.

The State Teen Arts Festival is a successful, time-tested model of a partnership between the arts, schools, commu-nity, business and government. We take serious the challenge of keeping it energized and cutting edge. An exciting addition to this year's festival, for example, is the opportunity for students to audition before team representatives from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania sports franchises for an opportunity to sing the national anthem.

Young Composers Program

In our experience working with teenage musicians, we identified many talented students with an interest in creating original musical compositions. Unfortunately, few had access to individuals who could guide them in the process of composing and nurture their development as creative artists. Music instruction in schools tends to focus almost ex-clusively on performance skills. As a result, in 1996, FOTA collaborated with the New Jersey Composers Guild to offer a Young Composers Festival, a one-day event at Rutgers. Student interest was strong, and, in 1997, an Artis-tic/Curriculum Coordinator was hired to develop the program. Working with several New Jersey composers, including Laurie Altman, Judith Nicosia, and Joel Phillips, goals for the program were established:

1. To introduce students to the process of musical composition
2. To help students express themselves artistically by developing their musical and composing skills
3. To demonstrate the use of music technology in the composing process
4. To provide students with opportunities to study under and interact with accomplished composers
5. To provide students with an expert critique of their finished works or works in progress
6. To provide students with information about educational and career opportunities for music theorists.

The program now includes individual mentoring of students leading up to a full day of workshops and performances at Westminster Choir College. Workshops focus on the creative process, musical skills, the theory behind musical expression, orchestration, improvisation, the role of technology, and career options.
 
Young Video Makers Program

This generation of teenagers grew up with MTV, and although many are interested in making videos, opportunities to explore video production in traditional school programs are limited or non-existent. In December of 1999, FOTA approached the News Tribune New York Foundation with an outline of plans to create a program for teenagers to teach skills that will help students translate creative ideas into successful videos. Since that time, we have been or-ganizing an annual for student video makers.

Program goals include:

1. To help students develop the skills necessary to successfully plan, create and edit a video
2. To encourage students to explore ideas and creative expression in a supportive environment
3. To demonstrate the application and use of current video production technology
4. To provide students with an opportunity to share their works with peers
5. To provide students with opportunities to study under and work closely with professional videographers
6. To provide students with an expert critique of their work
7. To provide students with information about educational and career opportunities in video.

Students explore the fundamentals of: concept, including plot, storyline, script and screenplay; pre-production preparation including methods of evaluating and executing visual ideas; camera operation and technique; lighting; staging techniques and continuity; audio, including sound recording, sound editing and music scoring; direction; editing and final visual presentation; and, graphics and animation.

New Jersey State Teen Arts Touring Art Show

There are many talented teenage artists, yet rarely are they given venues to share their works beyond the walls of their school. This exhibit extends those boundaries. The New Jersey State Teen Arts Touring Art Exhibit is the only one of its kind in New Jersey to feature works from artists statewide, ages 13 to 18. It showcases the incredible tal-ent, creativity, originality, emotional depth, and artistic abilities of teenagers from urban, suburban and rural com-munities in New Jersey, working in watercolor, pastel, oil, acrylic, charcoal, silk-screening, collage, scratchboard, photography, fabric, and computer graphics. Themes are as diverse as each individual artist, exploring emotions, life cycles, relationships, contemporary issues and the environment where teens live, learn, work, and play.

Artwork is chosen for the tour by professional artists. Selections are made annually from among those exhibited at County and State Teen Arts Festivals. In July of every year, new pieces replace existing ones in the exhibit after a year on tour.

The exhibit travels to approximately 12 different locations each year, both traditional artist spaces and non-traditional sites including galleries, museums, corporate lobbies, public libraries, government offices, hospitals and conventions. Recent sites have included the Noyes Museum, the Monmouth Museum, the Atlantic City Art Center, the Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Beach Island Foundation for the Arts & Sciences, Waterloo Village, MetLife, Chubb, Panasonic, and the New Jersey State House Annex. Additionally, to make the artwork accessible to indi-viduals who would not normally visit museums or galleries, the exhibit also hangs in locations such as Newark Airport and the New Jersey State Aquarium.

New Jersey State Teen Arts Calendar

Every year at the State Teen Arts Festival, professional artists select from among the 650 + student art exhibit, ap-proximately 16 pieces for reproduction in a 12-month calendar. In recent years, the calendar has been reproduced for FOTA in black and white by the NJEA. It is distributed free of charge to students, schools, and program sponsors, among others. 

Earthrise, The New Jersey State Teen Arts Creative Writing Anthology

New Jersey teenagers submit several thousand creative writing entries to County Teen Arts events annually. Profes-sional writers and poets read every one, and select five from every county for inclusion in Earthrise, the statewide anthology. When funding or in-kind services are available, FOTA has the anthology professionally reproduced and distributes copies to schools throughout the state. In years when funding is limited, FOTA produces several master copies only, which are then distributed to County Teen Arts organizations for reproduction and distribution. It is a popular publication, frequently used for teaching purposes in the schools.
 
Services to Artists, Educators & County Teen Arts Coordinators

FOTA periodically organizes workshops for artists, educators, and county teen arts coordinators. FOTA is very committed to the process of assisting professional artists and schools form lasting collaborations that will impact curricular development in individual schools across the state. We are interested in teaching artists how to use their talents to develop programs for the classroom and write curriculum with educators.

Additionally, FOTA organizes three annual workshops for county teen arts coordinators in January, June and Sep-tember. At these meetings, coordinators share triumphs and disappointments and exchange ideas and information to keep the Teen Arts program energized. Frequently, FOTA invites guest speakers to address the group on topics such as grant writing strategies, ADA compliance, and how to present artwork effectively. As an additional service to both educators and county coordinators, FOTA compiles and prints an Artist Resource Directory, a listing of professional and teaching artists who are available to give workshops in their art form or adjudicate student performances.