Global Youth Media and Arts Program 2005

Youth address the theme “Peace and Conflict”

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Commentary

World Savvy's first annual Global Youth Media and Art Festival was a resounding success! The Festival took place on December 8th and 9th at SOMArts Cultural Center and was attended by over 500 visitors and nearly 200 students on school field trips. The festival celebrated a three-month collaboration between World Savvy and 20 local media and arts programs. Over the course of the fall World Savvy supported each partner organization in incorporating global issues into their program around this year's theme: Peace and Conflict: from Local to Global. World Savvy provided each partner with a Collaborator's Guide of curricula, original workshops merging art, media and global issues, and planned three Saturday Jam Sessions designed to facilitate community building and introduce the youth to a wide range of professional artists.

With this support, 270 youth from 20 arts organizations worked throughout the fall on art and media projects about peace and conflict and presented their projects at the December Festival. Youth worked in a wide range of media including photography, film, painting, spoken word, radio and print journalism, web design, hip-hop and dance. These youth tackled the theme of peace and conflict in creative and thought-provoking ways:

In an attempt to beautify and bring more peace to their community, a group of youth from Southern Exposure took on a "Guerilla Gardening" project. Students walked around the neighborhood with daisies and lettuce and planted their blooms wherever they could find soil: next to trees and at the edges of overgrown parks. Youth documented this outing and displayed their maps and photographs at the festival. Journalism students from Lick Wilmerding High School dedicated an entire issue of their newspaper to The Global Youth Media and Arts Program and wrote articles on topics ranging from the role of arts in public school education to the murders in Ciudad Juarez and a personal take on the recent riots in France.

There were also a number of wonderful performances at the festival. The Destiny Arts Performance Company worked with a young choreographer to create a dynamic, original piece titled, "Dangerous Beauty," addressing issues of global inequality, racial and cultural conflict. The young people of Youth Movement Records (YMR) also brought their rhythm and style to the SOMArts stage. Two YMR artists performed hip-hop and reggae songs addressing community violence, discrimination against women, and hope for peace through music and solidarity.

All in all, the two-day festival was a wonderful occasion for creative exchange and community engagement for young artists, parents, program leaders and community members alike! This event would not have been possible without the generous support of our donors and sponsors. The Electronic Arts Foundation at the Community Foundation Silicon Valley largely supported the festival, with additional support from the Rudolf Steiner Foundation's New Initiatives Fund, The Potrero Nuevo Fund, The Ark Foundation, the Arthur B. Schultz Foundation, and the Mary Crocker Trust.

In kind support was provided by SOMArts Cultural Center, A Bed of Roses, Pasta Pomodoro, Arizmendi Bakery, Pizza Hut, Baja Fresh, Rotee, Chutney, Subway, Krishna Digital, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and Kristy McKoy.

Please accept our sincere thanks for the making the festival such a success!

 

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