We’re building capacity to meet growing needs…
Within 24 hours of opening spring registration, we only had 5 open seats left out of 85, and after less than 1 week, all spots were full and we had over 30 on the waiting list for weekly classes! The number of enrollments in multi-week summer, fall, and spring classes nearly doubled this year, jumping from 220 to 435. Read on to learn how we’re investing in staff capacity and partnerships this semester as we seek to optimize space and resources.
We’ve added 2 staff members and 3 interns in January! Our team from left to right: Miranda Craig (Program Director), Blake Matthews (Studio Manager), Addie Lembright (Hope College Intern), Evan Nickel (Hospitality, Ceramic Studio Tech, and STEAM Program Coordinator), Jaer Medina (Program Assistant), Kendall (RFL Intern), Emily Christensen (Executive Director), Annabelle Boyd (HS Intern), Ava (RFL Intern), Abbie Lopez (Admin Assistant). New staff positions were made possible by grant funding from the Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area, MiLEAP 32n OST, and generous year-end contributions.
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Blake Matthews (Studio Manager) is a Grand Rapids based artist and printmaker who received their BFA in Studio Art from Grand Valley State University, where they were also a Studio Coordinator and Adjunct Instructor. Blake was a recipient of the Leroy-Neiman Fellowship from Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency, and the Windgate Fellowship from Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. Since graduating they have been making art and prints that emphasize the overlap of Queer and Midwest identities and traditions, with their shared spirit of ingenuity, resilience, and respect for family, chosen or otherwise.
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Evan Nickel (Hospitality, Ceramic Studio Technician, & STEAM Program Coordinator) graduated from Hope College with a BS in Biomechanical Engineering. While at Hope, he also studied figure drawing, painting, ceramics, and piano. He loves learning and hopes to help students bridge the gap between art and materiality using his background in art and engineering. He believes in art’s power to foster exploration of our world and ourselves as well as a way to connect with our sense of play. In his free time, he is climbing, cooking, teaching piano lessons, knitting, and spending time with friends. Evan is also gifted at teaching/tutoring math…so bring on your calc questions!
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Addie Lembright (College Intern) is majoring in Studio Art with a Community Art Pedagogy minor at Hope College. Addie was born in MI and raised in Thailand, and she’ll be teaching our painting and drawing classes. We’re so grateful that the college internship will be funded once again through the Boerigter Center for Calling and Career at Hope College.
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Ready for Life: We’re thrilled to partner this year with Hope College’s Ready for Life Academy! Ava and Kendall joined our leadership team as interns this semester and we’re so grateful for their presence and creative gifts as we seek to build an inclusive, caring community for all students at CultureWorks. Also, cheers to our former intern, Chloe Bares, who is now the Inclusive Communities Coordinator at Ready for Life! Learn more here: https://rflnetwork.org/ready-for-life-academy/.
We follow a relationship-based approach to youth development, so having a team with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and artistic expertise is helps ensure that all our students have the opportunity to connect and grow.
We’re also training our staff and interns on the Youth Directed Space (YDS) model. This model seeks to empower youth through meaningful youth-adult partnerships and experiential leadership opportunities. In practice, this means moving at a slower pace to ensure that we’re centering youth voice and direction in critical decisions and projects. We’re so grateful for a time of feasting and laughter at our annual holiday party this month. As our Student Advisory Council shifts into planning and executing their own spring project, it was wonderful to pause, light some candles, and give thanks for one another and for the gift of creativity and friendship. Students made some of the most beautiful gifts for one another, and we’re excited for their student-curated exhibit this spring, hosted at Lemonjello’s!
Chronic and frequent food insecurity has risen this year among our students, so we’re providing more substantial afterschool snacks with a broader assortment of fresh fruits, vegetables, mixed salads, and proteins. We’ve helped students access additional resources through Community Action House, and we’ll be applying for a grant from Meijer to help support our food and hospitality budget, which has doubled this year along with the number of students we’re serving. We’re thrilled that Blake and Evan are passionate about cooking, and they’re excited to bring low-cost, nutritionally-dense recipes to our programs. Recent student favorites include masoor daal and rice, homemade pickled veggies, Moroccan squash and chick pea stew, and cucumber salad.
New and expanded partnerships:
Many thanks to Hope Church for hosting our Animation class with Vi Villanueva this semester; this enabled us to expand our DnD class back at the studio and bring more kids off the wait list! We’ve also hosted Hope Church’s youth group at the studio for several workshops, including a collaborative cyanotype project that celebrates the church’s upcoming solar panel installation.
We loved partnering with Escape Ministries for our first-ever songwriting class in the fall, and we’re looking forward to releasing an album of student work. Several students will be performing at Levitate Arts Festival in Holland on February 20 – check out their work from 3:10-3:40 at the Holland Armory.
We’re so grateful for growing community-wide support this year – we truly could not do this work without our funders, sponsors, partners, and supporters!
