Little Village Youth dig into the Archive

We’re so pleased to announce a brand new initiative that will use our videos in youth programs, both in-classroom and after school. Media Burn has been awarded a grant from the Chicago HIVE Fund for Connected Learning at the Chicago Community Trust. HIVE was seeded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and is stewarded by Mozilla. Our project partners are the National Mexican Museum of Art, Yollocalli Arts Reach, the Chicago History Museum, The Lamp, and the Center for College Access and Success at Northeastern Illinois University. The project, Chicago Slices, will expand the use of our collection by creating models for in-classroom use by teachers and students.

We were so excited for the HIVE project to begin in the fall that we began working with our partners over the summer. Todd Diedrich’s “Camera Flux” class at Yollocalli has been at work for six weeks, remixing our videos to create new audiovisual art projects. Yollocalli Arts Reach is the youth initiative of the National Museum of Mexican Art. For the last 19 years they have been offering opportunities for young artists in the Pilsen and Little Village communities to explore interests and uncover their artistic talents.

Todd Diederich, a local artist who teaches Camera Flux, gave the students a broad assignment of making a video by drawing on Media Burn for content. The video art they created was dynamic and unique, ranging in style from music video and protest to video collage. We were impressed that even when the same footage appeared in multiple projects, the impact was different in each manifestation.

We are excited to be able to share some of their videos with you.

We’re so excited about the work they’ve created and to begin this new project! If you want to see more work from these young artists, the Yollocalli summer exhibition is this Friday, August 12.  

If you are a CPS high school teacher and would like to be a part of the “Chicago Slices” professional development program, learn more here. Apply by August 19.