The dynamic arts non-profit Artoconecto is pleased to announce KIDSART BRIDGES: Tolerance and Understanding In Our World, a new and exciting series of arts camps that will take place at artists’ studios in Miami (US) and Gvozd (Croatia), during the summer of 2011.

Five of Miami’s leading artists---Bhakti Baxter, Leda Almar, Doug Hoekzema, Pachi Giustinian and Sinisa Kukec---will conduct one camp per week, on Saturdays from 10 AM to 1PM. The camps will include all materials, tools, art supplies, and lunch!

In fact, after finishing their collaborative projects, the kids will find a different food truck waiting, parked outside the artists’ studios.

Miami’s hottest food trucks, including Ms. Cheezious, Wing Commander, Mac and Food, Gastropod, Catered Bliss, and Churromania, will team up with the artists to feed kids ‘body and soul’. “We are very gratified that the arts community and the wildly popular food trucks of Miami have so generously embraced KIDSART,” says Executive Director Alexandra Rangel. “Eating lunch at a food truck after the workshops continues the fun and discovery for the kids.”

This summer KIDSART expands internationally, as the Miami camps will run concurrently with the participation of children from the war torn city of Gvozd in Croatia. Children and artists from both cities will work side by side to create meaningful pieces of artwork that reflect the theme of tolerance and understanding in our world. In addition, Artoconecto is excited to announce that they have been awarded their second grant from the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs for KIDSART, as well as a generous grant from international arts organization CEC Artslink. This will allow Artoconecto to expand its children’s program and partner with the Croatian organization Sunkocret (Sunflower) Center for Community Development. The grants will facilitate both organizations’ implementation of a five-week arts camp where kids will participate in collaborative art projects designed by established artists. The pieces produced during the camps, alongside the artwork of the participating artists, will be exhibited in a gallery space in December, during Art Basel Miami Beach 2011.

...PLUG IN

UPDATES AND NEWS

+++Artoconecto starts a free after-school arts program with Teaching Artist Leda Almar at Art Studio Miami. “Carving Your Message” will run on Wednesdays and Fridays.

First class photos-click here! [link]

++++Artoconecto wins grant from CEC ArtsLink for KIDSART Bridges, an international arts project with Croatia! From the CEC ArtsLink website:

2011 ARTSLINK PROJECTS AWARDEES

Alexandra Rangel
with students

ARTOCONECTO, MIAMI, FL

Host Country: Croatia

"$4,300 to support a collaboration with Suncokret Center for Community Development to carry out two simultaneous 5-week visual arts programs led by international artists for at-risk youth in Gvozd, Croatia and Miami, Florida. The programs will culminate in an exhibition of the students’ work held in Miami during the 2011 Art Basel Miami activities."

Go to CEC ArtsLink to see all of the award-winners!

KIDSART Bridges is an international exchange arts camp between kids from Croatia and Miami.

Project Summary

Artoconecto, the dynamic non-profit arts organization in Miami, Florida, (US) and the progressive organization Suncokret Center for Community Development from Gvozd, Croatia, propose an arts exchange camp called KIDSART BRIDGES which will have the participation of children from their respective areas. The program will run concurrently in both countries during the summer of 2011. For a period of five weeks, children from both partnered organizations will participate and engage in the creation of meaningful pieces of artwork, by following a theme that will address the various socio-economical realities in both cities. This will create a cross-cultural, international dialogue that will not only educate the audiences about the missions of both organizations but also emphasize the importance of the arts in the lives of our children. The arts camps will be conducted simultaneously, and will be filmed by Alexandra Rangel, Founder of Artoconecto. The artwork produced during these workshops, and a short documentary, will be featured in an arts exhibition in the City of Miami, during the festivities of Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2011.

KIDSART MIAMI

Miami art camps will start on July 30^th and will run through the month of August. Register your kids early. Space is limited to a group of 20 kids. For additional information contact us at artoconecto@gmail.com or call 786-246-2052.

PAST KIDSART ARTISTS

2009 KIDSART Artists: John DeFaro, Johnnie Robles, Luis Valle, Agustina Woodgate, Oscar Fuentes and Tracey Hagen

2010 KIDSART Artists: Karen Rifas, Onajide Shabaka, Morphologic Studios, John DeFaro and Alexandra Rangel

KIDSART BRIDGES CROATIA

Art camps in Croatia will start on July 30^th, in the region of Gvozds in conjunction with Suncokret [link]

MIAMI’S HOTTEST FOOD TRUCKS TEAM UP WITH ARTISTS TO FEED KIDS ‘BODY AND SOUL’

The dynamic arts non-profit Artoconecto presents KIDSART BRIDGES: Tolerance and Understanding In Our World, the third annual series of summer arts camps that will take place locally at artists’ studios in Miami, and internationally in Gvozd, Croatia. This summer, Miami’s hottest food trucks, including Ms. Cheezious, Wing Commander, Mac and Food, Gastropod and Catered Bliss will team up with local artists to feed kids ‘body and soul’. “We are very gratified that the arts community and the wildly popular food trucks of Miami have so generously embraced KIDSART,” says Executive Director Alexandra Rangel, “and we are excited that we will have the opportunity to expand the program internationally.”

Five artists in the Miami area, including Bhakti Baxter, Leda Almar, Doug Hoekzema, Pachi Giustinian and Sinisa Kukec, will conduct one camp per week, on Saturdays from 10 AM to 1PM. The camps will include all materials and art supplies. After each project, the kids will find a different food truck waiting, parked outside the artists’ studios. “We want to feed the kids ‘body and soul’,” says Rangel, “and lunch at a food truck after the workshops continues the fun and discovery for the kids.”

Children in Miami from the ages of 6 through 12 are welcome to participate this summer, where camps will run concurrently with the participation of children from the war torn city of Gvozd in Croatia. Children and artists from both cities will work side by side to create meaningful pieces of artwork that reflect the theme of tolerance and understanding in our world. Artists in Croatia include Hrvojé Mitrov, Stipe Zoroja, Lila Herceg, Nikola Faller and Aleksandra Podrebarac. In addition, Artoconecto is excited to announce that they have been awarded their second grant from the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs for KIDSART, as well as a generous grant from international arts organization CEC Artslink. This will allow Artoconecto to expand its children’s program and partner with the Croatian organization Sunkocret (Sunflower) Center for Community Development. The grants will facilitate both organizations’ implementation of a five-week arts camp where kids will participate in collaborative art projects designed by established artists. The pieces produced during the camps, alongside the artwork of the participating artists, will be exhibited in a gallery space in December, during Art Basel Miami Beach 2011.

THE KIDSART BRIDGES program this year will have the participation of four under-privileged children selected through a partnership with Art Studio Miami, who will receive full scholarships for the camps. It is a tremendous opportunity to not only have your child participate in the most exciting arts camp in Miami, but also, you will directly contribute to sponsoring a child.

“KIDSART helps kids build a meaningful foundation for learning, and all kids deserve the chance to fulfill their potential,” says Rangel.

Starting day: Saturday July 30^th

Continues on: August 6^th, 13^th, 20^th and 27^th.

Times: from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM

Contribution to the program, tax deductible: $100 per child: includes materials, lunch and sponsorship of under-privileged children.

Space is limited to 20 children.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS
DEADLINE MARCH 31ST, 2011


Requesting Artist for Art Camps
Benefiting Miami's At Risk-Youth & Children in Foster.

The local arts advocacy organization Artoconecto, Inc, in conjunction with Art Studio Miami, Empowering Young Minds, are seeking local emerging visual artists, who have bold and exciting artistic ideas ready to be implemented at a series of arts camps for at-risk youth and children in foster care, at Art Studio's location in Little Haiti. The camps are scheduled to start March 2011 and will run consecutively through May. Artists in all mediums are invited to participate. The goal is to select two emerging artists who are ready and enthusiastic about implementing their dream project and work with a group of children in need, on a volunteer basis in exchange for valuable Teaching Artist experience and training. In addition the chosen artist's will have the opportunity to be eligible for a paid summer teaching artist position with Artoconecto's KIDSART program and a possible artist-in-residency at Art Studio.



Artoconecto's KIDSART program, in partnership with Art Studio, will provide selected artists with the tools, materials, population of at-risk youth, space, technical support and guidance necessary to successfully complete their art projects, therefore training them as teaching artists and adding a valuable set of skills to their CV/Resumes. Once selected for the volunteer Teaching Artist training, these artists will be recognized and participate with an honorarium in a paid position at the summer art camp of Artoconecto's KIDSART program, making it a sustainable and rewarding experience for the artist who in the process becomes an agent of change. In addition, the artists will be eligible to become an artist-in-residence within Art Studio.



Artoconecto is expanding the KIDSART project within Art Studio's premises, where during two months and under the tutelage of one artist per month, a population of children in need in the area of Little Haiti, will receive an afterschool arts program (2pm-6pm weekdays) that will serve as a compliment to their primary education.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD APPLICATION

KIDSART to Join Forces with Miami HEAT Superstar Dwyane Wade and Art Studio Miami to Raise Funds for Local Youth Programs

THIS FRIDAY...DECEMBER 3RD...7:30-9:30PM!

Miami HEAT superstar Dwyane Wade and his charity, Wade’s World Foundation, today announced a collaborative endeavor with Art Studio Miami, a local nonprofit aimed at empowering young people through artistic expression. The initiative, tied to Art Basel Miami 2010, will raise funds for the youth art program, based in Miami’s Little Haiti, as well as other community-based arts programs like KIDSART.

“The positive impact that art can have on a young person’s life should never be underestimated,” Wade said. “I am proud to support Art Studio Miami, and help inspire the talented youth in Little Haiti.”

On November 20 and 21, Wade’s World Foundation sponsored 12 members of the youth community of Little Haiti, ranging from the ages of eight to 18 and participating in creative and educational “TEAM” activities during Art Studio’s “WE ARE” integration program. With the guidance of artist-mentors, the children had the opportunity to create their own personal work.

The event will culminate in a “Hope in Action” cocktail reception from 7:30-9:30 PM on Friday, December 3 at the W Hotel South Beach, where the artwork created by the youth participants of the Art Studio Miami will be displayed, and artists’ works will be auctioned off to raise funds for their programs. In addition, the works of the Art Studio Miami teaching artists, including those of Haitian decent, will accompany the student-featured show.

“We are thrilled that KIDSART will be a partnership program at Art Studio and uniting forces with Dwyane Wade and Wade’s World Foundation,” said Alexandra Rangel-Brody, founder and Creative Director of Artoconecto, KIDSART’s parent organization. KIDSART, through Art Studio Miami, will be one of the local arts programs for kids that will benefit from the event. “Mr. Wade is passionate about his commitment to the kids of Miami, and we hope to forge a strong relationship with him and his foundation to help build a better future for all of the children in our community.”

Event is Free and Open to the Public!

'W' Hotel South Beach

2201 Collins Ave.

Miami Beach