Last month, the annual Mozilla Festival took place in London. This gathering had over 600 participants. Cydney Gray, our Digital Learning Programs Associate, represented DreamYard and ran a series of workshops for youth. We are excited to share her thoughts about the festival and the unique experience of running workshops abroad!

Q. Please describe the Mozilla festival and DreamYard's participation?

The Mozilla Festival was a three day event dedicated to bringing together innovators from different fields interested in media, freedom and the web. DreamYard was invited to participate in the festival as part of the Hive London Pop-up, where members of Hive NYC and Hive Chicago, along with organizations from San Francisco and London, came together to facilitate hands-on youth activities. As a part of Hive NYC, it was important for DreamYard to represent the network as a voice of an arts-based educational organization that is developing ways to integrate digital learning into our youth programs.

Q. Was there an opportunity to work with other organizations and do you see DreamYard collaborating with some of the participants from the festival in the future?

During the Hive London Pop-up Experience, I was able to collaborate and share best practices with other educators from Chicago, London and New York. I met amazing individuals and organizations doing great work in journalism, music, film-making, game design and many other fields. I am confident that DreamYard will find more ways to continue our relationship with this vibrant community of people especially through our upcoming digital learning workshops or possible internship opportunities for our young people.

Q. What were your most memorable moments of the festival?

My most memorable moments of the Festival all include the young people that came to the DY Hack-a-space workshop. They were totally engaged in designing what they would want to see in their ideal teen tech center. They had creative ideas that I would never have thought of as an educator like a snooker table, jacuzzis, ball pits, slides, makeup station, etc.

For more photos and videos from our workshops in London, please click here.

Thanks to a generous multi-year grant DreamYard received from the Surdna Foundation, Bronx Acting Ensemble (BAE) students will participate in a series of professional theater workshops next spring.

The visiting artist series will commence with workshops led by guest artist Ben Snyder. Ben is a playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker and a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. His plays have been produced at Center Stage New York, The Apollo Theater and as part of HBO's U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.

The workshops will run for six weeks and will introduce participants to foundational skills in storytelling and playwriting. Participants will also have the opportunity to write their own 10 minute play based on an experience in their life when they were either a target, bystander, victim or perpetrator.

At the end of the workshop, four scripts will be selected to be performed by BAE during the OSP Festival in May 2012.

"I teach because I find young people inspiring, hilarious, brave, compassionate and challenging. And I think it's a rare gift to witness young people making bold creative choices and taking the risk of publicly owning them." Jay Rhoderick, DreamYard Teaching Artist and Creative Arts Coach

Jay has been with DreamYard for over 15 years as a teaching artist and creative arts coach in theatre. Over the years, Jay has inspired more than 1000 young artists through our In-School Programs and has lead numerous workshops in our Out-of-School Programs. Jay was a founding faculty member at our high school, DY Prep. Currently, he teaches theatre at PS 32 and coaches classroom teachers at PS 85 on how to strategically integrate theatre into their curriculum. Jay continues to contribute his expertise as an actor and educator to our community of teaching artists and teachers in the Bronx Arts Learning Community.

We spoke with one of Jay's former students, Michael Torres, who is currently enrolled in NYU/TISCH School of the Arts, and he had this to say about Jay - "When I stepped into Jay Rhoderick's theatre, acting and writing grade at DreamYard, I learned that I love the theatre, acting and writing. To be introduced into the performing arts awakened my creativity."

In his professional artistic life, Jay teaches improvisation and directs and coaches people as speakers and performers. Speaking on what he has learned from his students, Jay talks about how they continue to teach him that learning is ongoing and happens in surprising, curious and often elusive ways.

DreamYard is pleased to announce that the Out of School Programs at the Art Center received a prestigious three year grant from the Surdna Foundation. The grant will support ongoing workshops through mentorships with professional artists, provide travel opportunities, and the creation of portfolios. The Surdna Foundation's focus on supporting just and thriving cultures make it an excellent partner for DreamYard.

DreamYard A.C.T.I.O.N. Project seniors hosted a workshop at this year's 11th Annual Teachers 4 Social Justice conference. This year's theme was "The Power of Community". As one of the few youth-only facilitators, A.C.T.I.O.N. presented three models that they use to build community: games, art-based activities and performance to a group of educators and teaching artists from across the country.

"The workshops were fun and very successful. I was proud of myself because I was prepared and I didn't need any notes. The keynote speaker Patrick Camangian had a big impact on me. He talked about how important it is for young people of color to embrace their heritage and unite to fight injustice. Going to this conference and being a part of A.C.T.I.O.N. has inspired me to do an A.C.T.I.O.N.-like mentoring program at my school. A.C.T.I.O.N. has given me a revolutionary spirit!" - Angel Matos, A.C.T.I.O.N. Senior

On November 2, DY Preparatory High School hosted its 3rd Annual College Prep Day. The event brought together over 25 volunteers to help students better understand the college admissions process. We started the day with a panel discussion by recent DY Prep graduates, who spoke about their college experiences including challenges, extracurricular activities, and specific tips about making a successful transition from high school.

DY Prep students had the chance to hone their interviewing skills and review their college admissions essays. Speaking about what she learned from the day, Page, a current DY Prep Senior, said "It is important to tell my personal story and also equally important for me to relate my story to what I want to study in college."

On October 15th, the Fred Dolan Art Academy will be starting its year long visual arts programming! We are excited to offer the Dolan Art Academy as a resource for our Bronx Art Learning Community.

For the 2011-12 school year, the Academy will work with 75 students, 27 high school students from Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School and 48 middle school students from MS 30, MS 45, and MS 118.

Running on Saturdays from 10am-1pm, the Academy teaches students to draw and paint and helps them develop high quality portfolios that they can use for college applications and other professional opportunities.

Started in 2006 by Neil Waldman, an artist raised in the Bronx, the Academy is having amazing results on its students' artistic development as well as their academic achievement.

Michelle Colon, a parent of a student at the Academy, signed up her son in the hopes that the program will prepare him for college. "He is fascinated by the arts and has been since he was little. I was thinking of getting him into a private high school that emphasizes his art skills especially because this is the first year he has had arts in his school but now I feel that this program will help him get connected to an arts college."

On September 16th, the DreamYard Project hosted a free movie night outside of the Art Center. The event was well-attended: over 300 people of all ages from around the community came, including local businesses that displayed their cuisines and offered items for the raffle. Bronx Pro managed the event while the Bronx Museum sponsored free tickets to the museum. We started off the event by handing out 100 free backpacks, donated by the High Water Women Foundation followed by an exciting Zumba class and loads of free food.

The DreamYard ISP and OSP teams made sure to inform the crowd about some of the programs offered at the Art Center and some of the workshops that would be offered following the expansion of the Art Center to include Digital Learning Programs.

We hope to organize more exciting events in the future that will bring kids, adults and businesses within the community together!

DreamYard Preparatory students with Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., Start Strong Bronx, and other teen advocates against teen-dating violence and sexual abuse gathered across the city Wednesday to commemorate an international rape case and discuss an enduring issue that hits close to home for Bronxites.

To read the full article, click here: Denim Day in the Daily News

Renowned designer b michael invited the students of the DreamYard A.C.T.I.O.N. project to share their arts-based social activism work on Haiti at his Spring 2011 Fashion Show during Fashion Week.

To read more about this event, click here:

b michael Spring 2011 collection features inspiring tribute to Haiti

b michael dedicates Spring 2011 collection to Haiti