JANUARY 2022
Better Together: Crafting the Future event at YAYA​
​​
Better Together is a Crafting the Future (CTF) event series working to amplify, celebrate, and support the careers of BIPOC makers, from aspiring artists to newly and firmly established artists.
The event was hosted by YAYA and featured pop-up markets, technical demonstrations and special musical performances that included glass blowing demonstrations and special musical performances. Crafting the Future's goals are to share the works of established black and brown makers/entrepreneurs, connect young creatives in the early stages of career development with opportunities in their field, and build a network for participants that may include seemingly disparate communities.
​
Many artist vendors participated, including YAYA alumni: Brandon Bartley, Julia Irons, Raymond Rollins, Frank Singleton, Derroles Taylor, & Paul Michael Wright.
MAY 2021
How Y'all Doin'?
​
Ana & Adeline Foundation & alumni (Julia Irons, Rondell Crier, Carl Trim, and David Garcia) hosted a virtual community event for YAYA alumni & guild to catch up, discuss current projects, funding and artist resources, earn prizes, and more!​
​
The event featured a tribute to YAYA community members who are no longer with us, an artist talk by YAYA alumni Nik Richard, a Lyndon J. Barrois animation screening, scholarship & artist resources information, and YAYA trivia. The event came tom a close with breakout rooms. Artists chose which breakout room they were most interested in: Fashion Design with David Garcia & Carl Trim, Scholarships with Jeremiah Brown, Paul Wright & Ann Kaufman, or Transformations through Art with Rondell Crier, Nik Richard & Julia Irons.
​
Trivia winners and their prizes: Laila James who won a bucket hat made by Derroles Taylor, Brandon Bartley won a Kobe Bryant illustration print by Nik Richard, and Kenyatta Johnson won an art T-shirt by Channel Guice Thomas.
MARCH 2019
Scholarship/Grant Info Session
Application One-on-One Reviews
​
Foundation Director Ann Kaufman provided important application information. Creative strategy leader Asante Salaam led an interactive workshop for artists and designers at any career stage to fine-tune their professional tools. One-on-one application reviews have continued to be offered to artists during subsequent application seasons and will continue to be offered in the future.​
APRIL 2019
Work Sample & Video Lab
Application One-on-One Reviews
YAYA alumni, media artists & photographers Jourdan Barnes and Quinton Hakeem led an interactive workshop for artists and designers at any career stage to fine-tune their digital portfolio. YAYA Alumni were invited to schedule a one-on-one session to strengthen work samples and a video for the upcoming grant and scholarship application. Barnes and Gilmore helped artists assess their portfolio and provided technical assistance as you selected and prepared your work for submission.
​​
What is offered in a one-on-one session:
-
View a selection of images or your work.
-
Feedback about which works might be the strongest representation and relevant for the application.
-
Critical feedback on technical aspects such as framing, lighting, cropping, etc.
-
Tips on how to take the highest possible quality images of work either with a camera or a phone.
-
Assist and guide an artist in taking pictures of their work using their work using their own equipment either a smart phone or camera.
-
Discuss video concepts and offer technical advice about how to go about creating a video using available tools (ie smartphone and online apps).
MARCH 2018
​
Professional Development Workshop for Artists & Designers co-hosted by the Ana & Adeline Foundation and the Joan Mitchell Center
Twenty-four artists and designers from Joan Mitchell Center’s AIR program and Ana & Adeline Foundation grantees participated in a daylong STRATEGIC PLANNING WORKSHOP presented by Creative Capital.
Creative Capital is a New York-based nonprofit that supports innovative and adventurous artists across the country through funding, counsel, and career development services. Creative Capital’s co-presenters lead the workshop: Colleen Keegan, a corporate strategic planner and arts activist, and Dread Scott, an artist who makes revolutionary art to propel history forward.
Workshop participants learned key business and management skills and heard first-hand from artists how these tools can be used to break the crisis management cycle and achieve success—as they define it. Topics included business management, goal setting, communications and negotiation. In addition to lecture presentations, participants participated in interactive exercises, meet with leaders in small working groups, and were given Strategic Planning workbooks to help guide their process.
MARCH 2017
Toy Design Workshop - a pilot project for mentorship
The Ana & Adeline Foundation seeks to support the generational relationships between the YAYA alumni and the young artists at YAYA. As a pilot project, the foundation invited YAYA alumnus Brandon Thomas to design a studio mentorship project centered on his unique professional experiences. Thomas and his colleague, DeAndre Moore, both graduates of Otis College of Art & Design in Los Angeles, presented two toy design workshops at YAYA. They mentored YAYA high school artists in the fundamentals of toy design and orthographic sketching.
The second workshop was adapted for elementary students to include 3-D sculpting. Thomas and Moore closed the workshops with presentations about their own careers in design and product development– providing the young artists with a perspective about professional possibilities for designers. Thomas later presented the same toy design workshop at an orphanage that he visited in Jacaranda, Malawi. Learn more about Thomas and his work here.