Join us Monday March 28th at 12:15 pm in room FA107 to hear a talk by
Jason Tselentis on the Art of Side Projects.

The Art of Side Projects

Whether you call it a side project, gig, or moonlighting, there's never been a better time to take on a second job. But why do so many of us have side projects in addition to, or as a replacement for, our full-time work? Oftentimes, we can't explain why. It
could be a passion project, service project, or any old project, so long as you have a vision and a means to make it happen. Jason Tselentis showcases a range of side projects and some methods for taking them from idea to reality.

About Jason

As associate professor of design at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, Jason Tselentis teaches graphic design, typography, web design, and brand identity. He has four books to his credit, regularly writes for HOW and PRINT magazines, and is a contributing editor at PRINT.

Urban Resources Initiative Internships in Baltimore

Summer 2016

For descriptions of the internship projects listed below visit their website.

Opportunities with the Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks:

·         Conservation and Archiving of the Records of the Recreation Division

·         Park and Recreation Program Promotion

·         Park or Recreation Center User Survey

·         Outdoor Recreation Activities/Healthy Baltimore Initiative

·         Weed Warriors Program Tracking & Outreach

·         Recreation Center or Aquatics Program Assistant

·         Documenting Property Values and Community Perceptions Near  Major Parks

·         Assist Development of a Plan for a Major Park

Opportunities with the Parks & People Foundation:

·         Buried Hydrologic Resource Overlay Mapping

·         Vacant Lot Re-Use: Assessing Vacant Lot Maintenance and Stewardship

·         Growing Green Initiative: Resource Guide

·         Community Greening Resource Network (CGRN) Assistant

·         Urban Ecology Education (Baltimore Ecosystem Study)

Skill Set Required: 

See the web site listing for specific skills, background, and interests for each of the internships.

Preferred Areas of Study/Major(s):

Environmental Science/Studies and other liberal arts majors

Some Details:

In Baltimore, MD

Summer 2016 (June-August)

15-20 hours per week

Flexible Workdays

Application Requirements: 

Priority Application Deadline: April 15, 2016

Required Documentation:

Resume, Cover Letter, Other - Faculty contact for reference

To apply, go to www.parksandpeople.org/learn/urban-resources-initiative

URI has provided internships for Baltimore-area students with the Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks and with the Parks & People Foundation for over 25 years.

Nearly 200 educators, students, artists, and administrators attended the 10th Annual Arts Integration Conference on Saturday, March 5 at UMBC. The event was hosted by UMBC’s Department of Education in cooperation with The Shriver Center. This year’s conference, titled The Heart of Arts: Building Community through Arts Integration, focused on how integrating visual arts, dance, music, and theatre into P-12 curricula can help build cultural awareness, enhance community engagement, and provide opportunities for students to become advocates for social justice.

The conference was developed for P-12 teachers, teacher candidates, youth leaders, and others who work with students through the arts. The event included an interactive general session, 14 hands-on workshops, and an art show where conference attendees interacted with Baltimore City student artists.

Many UMBC alumni participated in the conference, including presentations and remarks by Kevin Maxwell ’02, Ph.D., language, literacy, and culture, CEO of Prince George’s County Public Schools, and Margaret Weber ’12, M.A.T., art education, New York City Public Schools visual arts teacher. Weber shared best practices for producing engaging lessons that address cultural relevancy through her interactive presentation “Hallway as Canvas: Bringing Graffiti Art Techniques into the Classroom.” Other presenters included Fabiola Rodriguez ’16, M.A.T., and her UMBC PDS mentor, Sara Murphy.

Frank Anderson, assistant director of The Choice Program at UMBC, led an interactive general session titled “Giving Students a Choice through Socially Engaged Art.” Choice Program youth shared how their arts-based visual, music, and dance projects have helped them engage with their community, including a shared mosaic created with the Baltimore City Police Department and an audio recording of a community sound collage. Meghann Shutt, assistant director of the Shriver Center Peaceworker Program, and several Shriver Center Peaceworkers provided readings from Voices of a People’s History. 

Many UMBC interns and students, UMBC Professional Development School (PDS) teachers, teachers from six Maryland school districts and Washington, D.C., and students and faculty from the University of Maryland, College Park and Towson University participated in the conference.

“I believe our record-breaking attendance this year was due to the relevance of the topic. Teachers understand the importance of building community in their classrooms, their schools, and the neighborhoods in which their students live,” explains Barbara Bourne, clinical instructor and director of elementary education and arts coordinator in the education department. “Conference presenters demonstrated how the arts – music, drama, visual art, and dance – are powerful tools for building communities from within and for linking one community to another. Hopefully, participants discovered new strategies for using arts integration as a means to connect their students with others in their classes, schools, neighborhoods, and global communities.”

For more information, visit the education department website.

On March 22, The Atlantic published an in-depth story examining the visibility of churches in black-and youth-led political activism of the last several years compared to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. George Derek Musgrove ’97, history, associate professor of history, was quoted extensively in the article and provided historical context for why the church doesn’t play as central a role today as it did during the sixties.

During the civil rights era, Musgrove told The Atlantic that churches provided a natural venue for people to come together to share messages. However, the article states, fewer young African Americans attend church now compared to the sixties.

“The main resources were bodies,” he said. “The church was the organizational center of the community. You were guaranteed to see a certain number of people every Sunday, and a lot of those people were going to be participating in church activities throughout the week. You could get access to them.”

Musgrove went on to explain that recent civil rights and social justice movements in Baltimore largely reflect what is taking place across the country. “Baltimore is a local representation of a national concern,” he said. “The Black Lives Matter movement is, to a certain degree, a reaction to the bitter disappointment of the Obama years…These folks have come to political maturity at a time when … there was this real hope that Obama would create a new era. And they have seen that the aftermath of that claim that things have, in many cases, gotten worse.” He shared that the current generation of young black activists are building social movements through institutions outside the context of the church.

Read the full article “Black Activism, Unchurched” in The Atlantic. 

Image: George Derek Musgrove. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.