Investing in full-circle youth development through the arts!
We’ve been delighted to see many CultureWorks alumni return this year to serve as volunteers, staff members, instructors, and board members! They’re excited to step into positions of leadership where they can use their skills, education, and experiences to benefit the next generation of CultureWorks students.
Jamie Phonhthalyhane, who now works full time as a Graphic Designer, reached out via email, writing:
“I owe a lot of my creative journey to the CultureWorks crew. My mentors and peers there helped me establish my relationship with art and eventually turn it into a career.”
Jamie recently graduated from MSU in Graphic Design and Illustration. On her first day of volunteering at CultureWorks, we visited Saugatuck Center for the Arts with SAC, where we met and worked with exhibiting artist Jeffrey Augustine Songco. Jamie remarked that it was really impactful to meet a successful artist who shared a similar cultural/ethnic background. Jamie connected with our students during the spring semester as a volunteer, and now she’s teaching 2 Character Design Classes this summer, both of which are full or beyond capacity with registrations. We’re excited to contract her to teach a 9-week Graphic Design class this year as well!
In Character Design, students learned the importance of creating distinctive features in order to avoid “same face syndrome.” They thought through what their character might wear and why, given their unique personalities and also their context (i.e. post apocalypse, outer space, combat, high school, etc.) We illustrated our characters from different angles and poses, worked on their backstories, and created a yearbook photo and senior quote for them. Along the way, we talked about favorite video games, animated TV shows, and which fictional characters would be our best friends.
