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www.kala.org
East Bay non-profit partners with regional schools to keep art education alive
Media Contacts:
Jamila Dunn / Kala Artists-in-Schools Program Coordinator
EastBay non-profit partners with regional schools to keep art education alive
Showcase of student work features monoprints, cyanotypes, sikscreen prints, claymation and animation shorts, photographs, and drawings by K-12 students of Kala’s Artists-in-Schools program in Berkeley
24 April 2009 – Berkeley, CA: Since 1992 Kala Art Institute (www.kala.org) has partnered with East Bay public schools to ensure K-12 students receive quality arts education. Each year Kala’s teaching artists are placed in classrooms and after school programs to introduce students to a variety of visual arts or dance techniques and vocabulary. A selection of artwork by these talented students will be on display as Kala Art Institute celebrates its 35th Anniversary and the opening of its new, expanded facility on Friday, May 1, 6pm to 9pm at 2990 San Pablo Avenue in the historic Heinz building in West Berkeley.
This Showcase of student work features monoprints, cyanotypes, sikscreen prints, claymation and animation shorts, photographs, and drawings by K-12 students of Kala’s Artists-in-Schools program in Berkeley, Oaklandand Emeryville schools. The exhibition of student work runs through May 30th and is on display in the new Kala classroom, next to the new Kala Gallery which will features its inaugural show re:con-figure.
Kala Art Institute provides emerging and established artists with opportunities to develop experimental artwork by offering a "creative oasis" where artists from around the world work and exchange ideas in ourWest Berkeley studios.
Since its founding in 1974 by Archana Horsting and Yuzo Nakano, Kala Art Institute has helped artists sustain their creative efforts by offering access to state of the art traditional printmaking and digital image-making equipment, as well as professional development opportunities for artists, including exhibitions, technical advising, instruction and consignment art sales. As a public benefit organization, Kala has been committed to offering quality art education to artists, the general public and to public school students. Kala’s core Artist-in-Residence and Fellowship Programs are complemented by on-site classes taught by artists, and an Artists-in-Schools program that reaches 2,500 students each year.
Kala's expanded new exhibition space at 2990 San Pablo Avenue is located around the corner from Kala Art Institute’s studios. This 6,700-square-foot expansion on the San Pablo side of the building provides a highly visible and easily accessible street-level entrance, and includes more than 2,000 square feet of new exhibition space for Kala Gallery plus three project rooms for artists, the Mercy & Roger Smullen Print and Media Study Center, the Sharon & Barclay Simpson conference room, a large classroom equipped with a printing press, and staff offices. The new classroom provides Kala’s education department, including the Artists-in-Schools program, with the opportunity to offer a more comprehensive selection of classes including academic year and summer art-making and performance programs for youth.
