Youth Action Coalition

Help Video Vanguards get to the Allied Media Conference in Detroit!

Barry — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 12:59:41 +0000

Donate online to YAC Trip to the Allied Media Conference at Razoo

Youth Action Coalition Spring Block Party!

Allison — Fri, 03 May 2013 21:05:49 +0000

The members of Youth Action Coalition’s Arts-for-Change programs have been hard at work creating beautiful art that will be exhibited inside and outside of Rao’s Coffee in Amherst for a celebration of Spring and the end of the program year.

This exhibit will begin with a display of photography from GirlsEyeView Amherst & Ware inside of Rao’s from Wednesday, May 22 to Sunday, June 9.

During the Amherst Art Walk on Thursday, June 6 from 5-7pm Get Up Get Down will unveil the mural they have crafted for the red wall next to Rao’s Café, Video Vanguards members will screen their newest videos at the Bangs Center, and all YAC youth will come together to present their artwork.

2013 Lights, Camera, Youth Action, Success!

Barry — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 15:19:34 +0000

Our 6th Annual “Lights, Camera, Youth Action!” fundraiser on March 24th was
spectacular, thanks to the Apollo Grill & everyone who contributed and joined us for the
event! With over 70 items to auction off, folks went home with some
fantastic gifts. A special shout out to our youth presenters who did a
fantastic job of engaging the audience and sharing their experience with
YAC! All who helped make this event happen did a wonderful job and we
appreciate your support of the YAC community!

Check out the event and photo booth photos!

YAC @ the Apollo Grill

Stacey — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 21:39:45 +0000

Beautiful work! Wonderful night!

YAC artwork went up on the walls of the Apollo Grill this week and was featured during Art Walk Easthampton on Saturday, 3/9/13. A hearty THANK YOU to Casey and Jennifer at the APOLLO GRILL for hosting this exhibition and our upcoming “Lights, Camera, Youth Action!” Showcase/Auction/Celebration/Fundraiser on 3/24/13. See more photos on our Facebook Page!

Get Up Get Down @ Freedom Trails Gallery

Barry — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 16:44:47 +0000

Check out the GUGD installation project that opened at Freedom Trails Gallery Thursday, March 7th celebrating the culmination of this collaborative piece with Get Up Get Down and local artists Alicia Renadette and Angela Zammarelli! The exhibit will be up all month! Visit our blog to learn more.

SAVE THE DATE: 3/24/13

Barry — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:45:22 +0000

Lights, Camera, Youth Action 2013!

Auction * Showcase * Celebration

March 24, 2013 • 2:30-5pm
Eastworks and Apollo Grill in Easthampton

Join us for our 6th annual fundraising extravaganza! New this year is a silent and live auction of local art, meals, specialty services, unique gifts and more, from local stores, artists and vendors. Help support local youth artists and change-makers in our region.

Fundraiser at Bertucci’s in Amherst NEXT TUESDAY! February 5th

Barry — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 21:02:32 +0000

51 East Pleasant St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Phone: 413-549-1900
Between 5-9pm

Come out and support YAC by ordering from Bertucci’s Italian Restaurant in Amherst on Tuesday, February 5 between 5-9pm. YAC will receive 15% of your bill. Dine In, Carry Out or Delivery Come hungry!

*This is a huge fundraising opportunity, so please invite your friends and family. Anyone and everyone is more than welcome.

YAC Unity photos are up!

Barry — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 19:57:29 +0000

Photos from the first YAC Unity event of 2013 at the old East Street School in Amherst are in the YAC Gallery! We sewed hand-made drawing books, designed stamps, and dressed up to create video projector art! And of course… there was pizza.

New people and plans for the new year!

Barry — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 19:06:17 +0000

As 2013 ushers in, we wanted to let you know about some important changes happening here at YAC. We are sad to say goodbye to Naomi Cairns, who came on board last fall as Program Coordinator for GirlsEyeView Amherst. Having worked at YAC several years prior, Naomi brought back with her an understanding of the history of GEV and YAC, tremendous dedication to our youth, a lively sense of humor and incredible compassion. We wish her well on her journey to more full time Social Work and hope there will be another day down the road when she might bless us by returning. We’re excited to welcome Veda Myers to the YAC crew as the new GEV Coordinator. Veda has extensive experience as a photographer, educator and organizer. You can read more about her on our staff page. We are thrilled to have her at the helm of GEV!

We are also in the midst of a shift with our E’town Photograffiti project. For the past year we have run the program at White Brook Middle School, but this winter made a decision to move back to Easthampton High School, where we initiated the program in 2010. We have also forged a new partnership with Treehouse Easthampton, bringing youth who live in adoptive and foster family settings into the program. Barry Scott nobly led the E’town project for the past year and a half, but is turning the reins over to Monique Desir, our current Video Vanguards Coordinator who will also lead E’town. Monique is a skilled digital media artist who is our first YAC staff member to have also been a youth member! We’re excited to have Barry move into another position at YAC as Communications Coordinator, working behind the scenes to strengthen our website, social media presence and all-around documentation of our work. We’re grateful to Barry for his great work developing E’town at the middle school and look forward to the new possibilities that will arise with this new direction and partnership at the high school.

GirlsEyeView Ware & E’town Photograffiti in the Hampshire Gazette!

Barry — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 05:56:31 +0000

Young Valley photographers showcased in Cummington show

By LAURA RODLEY Gazette Contributing Writer. Wednesday, January 9, 2013 (Published in print: Thursday, January 10, 2013)

Fourteen-year-old Natalie Robinson of Ware has a photograph of girls lying in a pile of leaves exhibited in “Places we Live, Play and Learn: Narratives of Life by Western Ma Youth Photographers,” a photography show at the Cummington Community House running through January.

PHOTO COURTESY OF NATALIE ROBINSON

Sunsets, a bird’s-eye view of Easthampton, students lying in a leaf pile snapping pictures of the sky, and cats are some of the images photographed by children ages 8 to 18 that are in the show “Places We Live, Play and Learn: Narratives of Life by Western Massachusetts Youth Photographers” at the Cummington Community House.

“It looks great up. I’m very happy,” said Sienna Wildfield, who organized the exhibit. Wildfield is executive director of Hilltown Families, an online family activity reference website. The show includes narratives written by each of the 20 photographers, who share “their view of life and the place they live,” Wildfield said. Those places include communities from Cummington to Easthampton to Ware.

There are also photographs by seven girls from a youth identity-building program called Youth Action Coalition, GirlsEyeView Ware, which is taught by Miriam Shafer. One girl in GirlsEyeView, Natalie Robinson, 14, writes this about her hometown, Ware: “My community, at first glance, isn’t the greatest of things. It seems small and shabby and there’s lots of room for improvement. And although that may be true, there are also the little things about it that make it one of the best places, out of many, that I’ve ever lived.”

One of Robinson’s photos won honorable mention in a juried adult show at Freedom Trail Gallery at Valley Frameworks in Amherst in November.

Chesterfield native Persephone Sarantidis, 10, is exhibiting a photo of a small waterfall on Chesterfield’s Stevenson Brook that she dubbed “Niagara Falls Jr.” when she was 5. She visits there when she’s “sad, happy or just bored,” she writes in the narrative that accompanies her photo. “Though small, Jr. has a very strong current.”

Nekysha Carter, 13, captured a bird’s-eye view of her hometown, Easthampton, while standing on Mount Tom on a brisk, cold day.

Fifteen-year-old Brenda Casko-Thews of Northampton experienced how a photography mistake can become a treasure: Trees in her picture of Pulaski Park in Northampton, taken one April night, unexpectedly came out orange, but that turns out to be the main reason she enjoys her picture. Viewers will likely be drawn to the image’s orange glow for that reason too.

The show will run through January at the Community House at 33 Main St.