Recognize: photography by local refugee teens
on view July 31 - September 6, 2009
OPENING RECEPTION Friday July 31st, 7-10 p.m.
Twenty-five refugee teens participating in youth programming services at Arcadia Community Center will be showcasing their photography in this exhibit.
The exhibition features self-selected work from the teen artists who participated in a six-week youth program last summer at Arcadia Community Center. Local photographers and artists worked with Arcadia staff to facilitate a summer curriculum that encouraged the teens to explore and express their identities through camera lenses. During the project, students were given their own cameras to capture images that expressed elements of who they are and what is important to them. The exhibition will feature each young artist’s self-selected best photo.
The teen summer programming at Arcadia was made possible in part by support from The Office Of Youth Development, Metro United Way, the Kentucky Country Day School’s Artemis Fund and Murphy’s Camera, as well as, additional contributors. The teens at Arcadia were involved in every aspect of the arts related program, including developing the theme of the project, which they coined “RECOGNIZE”.
“Our teens are more than refugees, more than internationals,” says Arcadia Executive Director, Jennifer Hurley. “They are typical teenagers, yet so extraordinary! Our hope with this project was to create an opportunity for our teens to recognize their own identity outside of the identities that so often get assigned to them, and in turn, offer to the larger community a deeper understanding of American life for a teenager from another country. RECOGNIZE is about celebrating this basic, but often overlooked, understanding.”
About Arcadia Community Center:
Arcadia Community Center partners with refugee and immigrant groups and additional community organizations to provide holistic services that offer educational and social support for new families adjusting to life in the United States. A key focus of the Center is providing dynamic programming for international youth to foster their personal growth and development. For more information or to make a donation, please visit arcadiacommunitycenter.org.
