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April 2010 news
Most exciting news! Chameleon is working with the Office of Homeless Liaison to support a residential Homeless teen youth shelter in Kansas City, Kansas. Connelly Hall is on the campus of the Old Central Baptist Seminary in Kansas City Kansas. The building used to be a college dorm. When the renovation is complete, it will include 24 beds for homeless teens. Chameleon is using its expertise and creative resources to change the basement into an arts and educational center with a dance, arts printmaking and recording studios. Chameleon will then use the center to provide ongoing arts and academic programming for the residents and facilitate a drop-in center for other teens. Our partners include Hillcrest Transitional Housing and Westside Family Church. We hope the center will open in September 2010.
Earth Day Earth Walk Animal Parade
Chameleon, working with the Community Arts and Service Learning (CASL) class at the Kansas City Art Institute, has created an eco outdoor arts installation. The students cut silhouettes of sharks, porpoises, fish, whales, hippos, cows, ducks and other animals from wood, then painted and stenciled text on the animal forms, identifying the major environmental problems the Earth faces. These colorful animal signs were secured to fence posts and temporarily planted in the ground, creating an arts installation for the Earth Day festivals. Hundreds of curious people wandered through the installation, at the center of which was a table manned by students to help people create Fundreds. What is the Fundred Project? At its simplest: 3 million unique drawings of U.S. One Hundred Dollar Bills (Fundreds) by students and community across the nation, picked up by a cool armored truck and delivered to Washington D.C. to request real funding to make safe lead-contaminated soil that currently places children at risk for severe learning disabilities and behavioral problems. Learn more at www.fundred.org!
The animal parade may soon show up in your community, so keep an eye out. Presently, we are planning to install it for the UMKC Earth Day celebration, Troost Festival, Fringe Festival, Wyandotte High School Earth Day, Office of Homeless Liaison, the Kansas City Art Institute Spring Fling and other venues this spring and summer. If your group is interested in bringing the animal parade to your event, please contact Hugh Merrill at 816-686-8626.
Fundred Project Continues
Chameleon continues to facilitate Fundred events First Fridays at the Leedy Voulkos Art Center though May, Green Day celebrations in inner city community centers and for the upcoming Troost Festival. We have now collected over 5000 drawings, many of which are presently on display in the Printmaking Gallery at the Kansas City Art Institute, April 6-24. We wish to thank all of those who have participated in the Fundred Project and believe we have used the arts to make thousands of people in our community aware of the dangers of lead in inner city communities and have provided a solution for removing it through the use of plants and gardens. For more information on this amazing project visit www.fundred.org.
KCKS KIDS
Chameleon completed its spring arts and academic program with homeless students from the Office of Homeless Liaison Kansas City Kansas. The Hip Hop Academy provided 4 weeks of dance, poetry and visual arts for the kids. The sessions were held at Brush Creek and Westport Roanoke Community Centers, and we wish to thanks KC Parks and Recreation for their help in hosting the program.
Troost Festival and Summer Arts Actions
Chameleon will be setting up a street photo studio to shoot professional quality portraits of residents attending the Troost Festival on May 22nd. Emmett Merrill, a Chameleon Youth Intern, will be the photographer. When the sun goes down, photographs of Troost residents will be projected onto Chameleon’s 12x10 foot projection screen set up in the middle of Troost, making the local community superstars of their own festival! We hope to continue to use the shooting studio and projects at other community events this summer.
Emmett Merrill will be exhibiting photos of homeless folks shot as they work off ramps and stop light intersections in down town Kansas City at the Missouri Bank in the Cross Roads District, opening May 1st. This is part of an ongoing Chameleon arts action to recognize homeless people and bring their battle for survival to a broader public audience.