January 2012 News

Detention Programming - 2011 Summary

Chameleon Program Coordinator Brennan Ponder has been working closely with the Jackson County Family Court as a youth worker in juvenile detention to provide daily access to the arts for youth awaiting trial or transfer to a long-term residential facility. Programming began through tri-weekly art lessons at the Jackson County Family Court and neighboring residential facility Jackson House. Residents made t-shirts promoting personal logos or prospective business ventures, constructed clay molds to make group plaster castings, and vented the frustrations of life away from family and friends through creative expression. Several youths participated in numerous art shows.

After eight months of outside programming coming into youth detention facilities, Family Court detention facility supervisor Randy Kruger and facility secretary Pat Paris wanted continued arts engagement for facility residents and asked that Chameleon programming join the Back-Up Youth Worker Program.

Originally established as a means of integrating arts programming into the school routine of an incarceration facility, the project quickly became much more than an outsourced utility. The arts became an essential tool in behavioral management. An incarcerated population is an inherently volatile population, many times individuals are segregated from friends and family and isolated from their average routine. Thrust into a new home, many of the residents are being held under allegations of violent crimes and react aggressively to foreign environments. An incentive program is involved in behavioral management at The Jackson County Youth Detention Center.

Incentives involve timed reintroductions to normal life, including extended phone calls, video games, movies, and snacks. Lately, art has provided a necessary role in rewarding good behavior and good school performance. Residents work on their own graphic designs with pencil and paper in exchange for having their portraits drawn by staff. At the end of the week, residents who have performed well in school and/or obeyed facility rules get extended time and materials to hone their designs and gain possession of their hand-drawn portraits to send to family and friends. Rather than being sent to isolated confinement or room constrictions as punishment, residents can be encouraged to make good decisions so that they can polish their own creations and gain access to a recent image to send to loved ones. As cameras are not permitted, it is quite a reward for residents and friends alike to see themselves represented on paper, a tangible record of their experience and penance.

Chameleon Family Court arts programming has truly lived up to its name in adapting to fit the needs of its constituents. Morphing from an outside agent bringing art in the form of segmented classes to a mode of behavioral encouragement integrated into the day to day operations of a youth correctional facility, Chameleon programming has shown a commitment to adaptation in providing access to professional level art instruction and production in the most demanding of environments. Keep current about 2012 project plans and developments by checking our website or following us on Facebook!

 

Harvest Moon American Indian Festival

Chameleon worked with the first regional Harvest Moon American Indian Festival held in Kansas City’s urban community featuring performances by three Grammy-Award winning artists. “Urban Indians are Real Indians Too: Keepers of Ancestral Soil,” was the theme of the inaugural festival, staged Saturday, October 15, 2011, at the intersections of 31st Street and Troost Avenue, in Kansas City, MO. The event is the first of its kind to be staged nationally in an urban inner-city area, according to festival founder, Teresa Bradskey, a Native American from the Miami of Oklahoma tribe.

The event featured performances by three award-winning Native American recording artists, including Joanne Shenandoah, the band Indigenous featuring Mato Nanji, and Bill “Birdsong” Miller, who played the flute for the song “Color of the Wind” in the animated Disney feature Pocahontas. Miller has also composed a symphony and several other award-winning songs.

All artists and artisans conform to the American Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990. The Harvest Festival has been celebrated for many generations but has not been observed in this region of the country other than on Indian reservations or in areas of highly concentrated American Indian population such as Lawrence, Kansas, where Haskell University promotes art festivals. Bradskey, who is Vice President of Tycor Community Development Corporation, Inc., the sponsoring agency, stated: “The intent of this festival is to break pow-wow stereotypes and introduce the arts community to contemporary Native performers to allow a day of true enjoyment of the urban American Indian community.”

Hosting the event was Curtis Zunigha, former chief of the Delaware Nation, government consultant, television and radio personality, producer, activist, and son of the Delaware and Isleta Pueblo. George Tiger, Muscogee Creek Nation council leader and former producer of the long-running Inside Native America television show, was Zunigha’s co-host. Tiger is currently President of the National Haskell Indian Nations University Board of Regents.

The keynote speaker at the 2011 festival was Kevin Gover, Director of the National Museum of the American Indian, at the Smithsonian Institution. In addition, the event showcased the finest of Native American artists and artisans from many areas of the United States and Canada including: Dana Tiger, Katrina Mitten, and Anita Fields. Many other creative artists working in traditional and other media also participated.

These important performers were also represented: Youth dancers from the local area, the Larry Daylight Family, the Painted Horse Dance Society, Seneca-Cayuga, Hands Drums, Stomp Dancers and the Canyon DeShay Dancers. Malachi, a 5-year-old Ponca/Oglala Sioux/Hopi/Papago who sings in Sioux language was the celebrated special guest! Men With Red, KARMA, AZ One, JC & Live Version along with Darryl Terrell and Jabon rounded out the entertainment.

The Harvest Moon Festival was presented by Tycor and Greenleaf Construction, a Native American owned firm, in conjunction with these community partners: the City of Kansas City’s Neighborhood Tourism and Development Fund, the American Indian Council, Kansas City American Indian Center, Southwest Jewels of Mission, Kansas, KCPT, Chameleon Arts and Youth Development, KCDV-TV Videography, Phillips-West and D Phillips Creative.

Chameleon designed and produced 20 large-scale poster/graphics that were displayed in the windows of empty storefronts along 31st and Troost Avenue. This represents a continuation of Chameleon’s long-term involvement with Troost Village, Tycor, and Father Paisius (David) Altschul. Chameleon is proud to be a member of the Troost Village and continues a successful partnership with other organizations to make the area a benchmark of urban celebration and positive growth.

More about Tycor Community Development Corporation:

Tycor, a 501 c (3) non-profit, founded in 2001, is an organization of individuals with a mission to provide underprivileged youth and young adults with resources and training to succeed in today’s competitive global business environment. Tycor also encourages and promotes industrial and economic entrepreneurial commercial and civic development as well as redevelopment activities in the midtown area. They work to provide housing and community development projects that benefit low-income individuals.

Background for the Event:

Several years ago, a loose collection of individuals, churches, businesses and organizations began a partnership with Tycor. The goal of this group was to facilitate the construction of an American Indian Pergola located at 31st and Harrison, one block west of Troost.

Led by Father Paisius (David) Altschul, this group, known as the Troost Village, now works with Taliaferro & Brown, Inc., a landscape architecture firm designing the structure. After the design is completed, a Native American artist will produce artwork for the completion of the display.

Harry Reaves, President of Tycor, states: “The 60,000-member Urban Indian Community in the extended Kansas City area represents 98 sovereign Tribal states but the community is still basically invisible; so we are hoping that the Pergola will help bring recognition to this sacred area.”

As Troost Avenue is part of the historic Osage Trail, the 31st to Linwood Avenue strip became the site of activities such as:

Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 – Public Law 101-644:

This rule is a truth-in-advertising law that prohibits misrepresentation in marketing of American Indian arts and crafts products sold within the U.S. It is illegal to offer or sell any product that falsely suggests Native American origin.

For more information about the Festival, please visit their website.

 

ACLU Know Your Rights Graphic Cards and Coloring Books

Chameleon is working with the American Civil Liberties Union to produce graphics, cards and posters showing our basic rights as citizens. Chameleon will be partnering with the Community Arts and Service Learning program at the Kansas City Art Institute this spring to design the graphics.

Spiva Center for the Arts and America: Now and Here

Chameleon is collaborating with the George A Spiva Art Center in Joplin Missouri and America: Now and Here to facilitate an exhibition opening in the summer of 2013 in Joplin, MO. Chameleon is designing community arts and educational events for this nationally regarded project. ANH will be sending two semi truck art galleries with work by some of the nations most renowned artists including: Eric Fischl, Kiki Smith, Chuck Close, and Tom Friedman.

New Publication

Artworker: Thoughts and Experiences in Social Arts Practice is an experiential guide to exploring and teaching community art. From an unassuming beginning in the early 1990’s through today, the evolution of social practice art has become an important means of expression for both artists and the public. Community artists combine both traditional and non-traditional media, representing an important shift in artistic practice as artists learn to go into the realm of the public for stimulation and growth, adding depth and meaning to their studio explorations.

The book asks these questions: What are effective methods of inspiring community art, and what is the relationship between art and the public? How can artists collaborate with disadvantaged children and adults to make their lives better through self-expression? Examples of successful exercises and sample projects are included as well as interviews with leading artists working on projects today.

Artworker includes Hugh Merrill’s proprietary Portrait of Self workbook, which has been used in workshops and classes across the country since its inception 1996. Through this process, anyone can become an artist capable of making informed and self-expressive work.

The book is scheduled for release in late 2012 and is co-authored by Adelia Ganson and Hugh Merrill.

 

Chameleon Arts & Youth Development receives funding and support from ArtsKC, Missouri Arts Council, and KC Parks & Recreation.

 

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