Fashion’s potency as communication is inarguable.
-Harold Koda
Every summer, participants in SFArtsED’s fashion camp are asked to research and make art based on a specific theme. While doing so they are also being taught a variety of construction skills and textile manipulations. The final project invites them to merge their artistic visions and newly acquired construction skills in a garment design of their choosing. This ensemble includes their individual inspiration, their own personal story, and a ton of creativity. See image below for proof of this.;)
For the summer of 2020 the SFArtsED fashion camp was held online and students were given the same prompts and then asked to make a collection instead of a garment. Not surprisingly (but delightfully) their creations were just as vibrant, thought provoking and exciting as ever. This website is a piece of virtual ephemera that celebrates their accomplishments.
Image from the SF Chronicle, October 2016
Since 1968, SFArtsED has paired San Francisco children with some of the Bay Area's finest professional artists to create hands-on creative arts experiences. SFArtsED supports artist residencies in an array of visual arts, dance, drama, musical theater, world rhythms, and choral expression at some twenty public schools and at after-school programs. At SFArtsED Summer, begun in 1995, students are immersed in a wide range of expressive disciplines for six weeks in June and July, with nearly 20% of campers receiving scholarship assistance. The musical theater troupe, the SFArtsED Players, founded in 2001, offers a rigorous after-school and weekend training program for serious young performers (ages 9-14), culminating in a fully realized production every spring. In March 2016, SFArtsED opened gallery/workshop space at the Minnesota Street Project in the Dogpatch arts district – a space ideal for workshops and exhibits of student work.
