File - Art for life

Contributions to the School Community
School Commitees
Condom Availability Program (CAP
✾✾ Trained and certified as the female condom distribution person in accordance with NYC public
school requirements. Graduate Inquiry Team
✾✾ Worked with fellow teachers, counseling staff and administration to look at and coordinate data
for students in graduation cohorts. As part of the committee mentored various students 1:1 to help
support pathways to graduation.
ELA Inquiry Team
✾✾ Worked with fellow teachers to review writing samples from students in graduation cohorts to
coordinate data pertaining to literacy skills and to develop action plans to best support students in
moving forward.
Sustainability Coordinator
✾✾ Developed and managed recycling program (paper, cardboard, bottles and cans, electronics) in
a small high school located within a larger high school building.
Graduation Commitee
✾✾
Aids in coordinating and executing graduation ceremonies.
School Community Development
Yearbook
Art Club
Staff Appreciation Shirts (design and printing)
Field Trips
✾✾ Whitney Museum of American Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, El Museo del Barrio, Museum of
Art and Design, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, 5 Pointz Grafitti Museum, Chelsea art galleries
✾✾ Malcolm Shabazz African Market, Akademiks Design Studio
✾✾ NYC Maritime Tours
Arts Partnerships and Shows
Studio in a School (classroom teaching and art show)
Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education
Bags for the People
Cross Bronx Art Show
Mural Projects
Steve Mercado Memorial (with Casita Maria)
BCHS School Seal Mural
BCHS School Mascot Mural
BCHS Community Garden Mural
Jill Chafietz Classroom
BCHS Math Classroom
Every spring and Summer I run
an art club designed to take
students from the Bronx and
explore with them some of the
various cultural organizations
and sites in NYC. We go on
field trips to museums such as
The Metropolitan museum of
art and the Whitney Museum
of American Art as well as
trips to chelsea, the NYC public library at 42nd street and
the Chelsea highline.
ART CLUB
Students contemplating artwork in Chelsea
Over the summer of 2011 the students of BCHS's
art club were invited to design vases for Gracie
MAnsion which were to be used during various
ceremonies and events hosted by the governor
of NYC. The students came together to plan
and execute designs for each vase after visiting the manion and worked under the theme of
"what NYC means to me."
Bags for the People
Through the collaboration of BCHS and Bags for the People, a non-profit
organization started by Glenn Robinson (pictured above), the students created
reusable bags. The students learned to sew both through hand stitching and
machine sewing and created bags using recycled textiles that were then donated
to local members of the community to spread the word about sustainablility and
our impact on the planet. The students were very excited to sew and created
bags for themselves, their families and the community. The art room was open
for sewing during classes, lunch and after school to accomodate the interest the
students had to create and donate their bags.
Staff Appreciation Shirts
Every year the staff nominates one member of our team
to celebrate at the end of the
year. As a gesture meant to
recognize successes in our
community i design and create
silk-screened t-shirts for all
staff and we honor the
commitment and hard work of
the members of our team.
School Mural Projects
Valedictorian, Henry Semanjarrez, reading a
dedication he wrote to Steve Mercado’s wife
The students in Urban Art, with the support of Carolina (fifth froom
left) a teaching artist from Casita Maria Center for Arts and
Education, created a mural dedicated to Steve Mercado. Steve
Mercado was a firefighter who gave his life during the tragedy of 911. He
was a well-known stickball player in the Bronx and the school adjacent
to the school is dedicated to him and was renamed Stcikball Avenue
(Steve Mercado Way).
Hall Mural in Bronx Community High School
This mural was designed by Freddy Polanco, an advocate counselor at the school, and painted by the
students in my Art For Change class.
Principal Matt Roberts, Steve’s wife, myself,
teaching artist Carolina and Sarah Calderon
Director of Casita Maria’s artist collaborations
Life in the
Math Lane
Mural in progress
painted over the
lockers of one of
our math classes.
Design and
painting done by
Art for Change.