Best Buys Made HereYoung Artist Edition Matches Mentors and Teens

to Design Light-Inspired Storefront Window Displays

MINNEAPOLISHennepin Theatre Trust and Made Here are pleased to announce that Best Buy has awarded a $25,000 grant to support Best Buys Made HereYoung Artist Edition, pairing artist mentors Wing Young Huie, Jason Quaynor, Kirk Washington, Jr., and Charles Fraser with teen groups to learn about new art forms and develop storefront art displays for public viewing.

As part of the larger Made Here initiative, the Made HereYoung Artist Edition is the first teen-focused program of its kind. Through this Cultural District pilot program, teams of young people work with respected professional artists to advance skills in video, photography and digital technology and assemble creative, collaborative window Showcases. Their work, centered on the theme of Brilliance! will explore light and illumination and be installed during November 2014 in prominent downtown Minneapolis storefronts such as City Place Lofts, Hennepin Avenue on 8^th Street.

These Made Here mentoring artists will partner with the following Youth Groups/Organizations:

Wing Young Huie will work with Bridges for Youth through Free Arts Minnesota
Jason "Quay" Quaynor will work with Teen Tech Center through the Minneapolis Central Library
Kirk Washington Jr. will work with the Breakfast Club through the Harrison Neighborhood in Minneapolis
Charles Fraser will work with students from the Avalon School in St. Paul

Best Buy is proud to make it possible for teens to learn from professional artist mentors to make positive contributions to a more vibrant, welcoming downtown community, commented Susan Bass Roberts, Best Buy Senior Director of Community Relations. By supporting innovative opportunities like Made Here Young Artist Edition, we open doors that help youth develop life-long skills to make a real difference in their future.

The Youth Edition is part of the broader Made Here project, the largest storefront window initiative in the country. It adds to ongoing collaborative activities in the downtown Cultural District

and celebrates creativity from across Minnesota by temporarily filling empty storefronts or commercial spaces with the work of local artists and Minnesota heritage brands. The Cultural District is developing as a more walkable center of arts, culture and economic activity to benefit residents, business and property owners, artists and visitors.

During the public planning of the Cultural District, participants, including young people, expressed a need for positive, safe, affordable and creative activities to engage youth who visit the downtown area. These groups encompass high school and college-aged students, public transit riders, arts patrons, sports enthusiasts, workers and homeless individuals. Made HereYoung Artist Edition is an opportunity to not only collaboratively offer constructive opportunities to positively engage youth, but help inspire a sense of pride and engagement with the city that they will inherit and already inhabit.

In addition, the broader Made Here initiative is now accepting applications for the third round of Showcase windows called Brilliance! Made Here running fall/winter 2014. The open call runs until midnight on Friday, Sept. 19, 2014. Artists can submit proposals that consider light and/or illumination in any creative way. For example, artists could use reflective materials, implement shadows, utilize projections, or manipulate light in photographs or videos, paintings, drawings or fiber art. To apply, visit the Made Here website madeheremn.org/submit

These Made Here projects, directed by Joan Vorderbruggen, Hennepin Theatre Trusts Cultural District Arts Coordinator, highlight the rich diversity of our cultural community. The Cultural District is a collaborative initiative with partners including the Trust, Walker Art Center, Artspace and the City of Minneapolis. For more information, go to MadeHereMN.org.

The presenting sponsor for Made Here is Andersen Windows with additional support from Art Institutes International, University of Minnesota Duluth, Dunwoody Institute and VEE Corporation. Headquartered in Bayport, Minnesota, Andersen Corporation is the largest window and door manufacturer in North America. Founded in 1903, Andersen is an international corporation employing more than 9,000 people in locations across North America, with sales worldwide. The company is committed to supporting the community, donating more than $50 million to nonprofit organizations through its foundation. Visit andersenwindows.com for more information.

Best Buys Made HereYoung Artist Edition: Mentor Artists and Youth Groups

Wing Young Huie, voted Artist of the Year by the Star Tribune in 2000, has been an independent photographer in the Twin Cities since 1979. Through freelance photo journalism, commercial photography and writing, Huie focuses on the truths of socioeconomic societies throughout America. Frogtown (1995), Lake Street USA (2000), and The University Avenue Project (2010) are just a few of his well-known endeavors, although he has participated in many influential projects and solo exhibitions nationally and internationally. For more information visit www.wingyounghuie.com.

Huie will collaborate with Free Arts Minnesota, a local non-profit organization that works with teen groups to inspire hope and build self-esteem for youth who have experienced poverty, homelessness, abuse and mental illness by using the healing powers of artistic expression and caring adult mentors. This unique combination of educational arts and mentoring helps foster the self-confidence and resiliency these youth need to realize their full potential. Partnering with more than 20 Twin Cities social service agencies and providing over 250 volunteer mentors, Free Arts Minnesota reaches over 4,000 youth every year.

For this project, Huie will be working with Bridge for Youth teens through Free Arts Minnesota to create a storefront display using photography from their recent Through My Lens project. This was an eight-week photography program designed for 65 teens in partnership with Huie and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Using his signature chalkboard interview method, Huie worked with the teens on photographic process as well as composition and editing. Teens had the opportunity to share their perspectives on community with a public audience through the medium of photography.

Kirk Washington Jr. is a teacher, interdisciplinary artist and organizer from Minneapolis North Side neighborhood. He has taught, lived, organized and made art all over the world for the last 20-plus years. He uses his talent to discover what true democracy and justice look like. His passion in life is family. He lives in Harrison Neighborhood where he is presently organizing a quarterly art festival for residents. He and his wife partner with local organizations and a neighborhood church to host a weekly gathering focusing on civic engagement, organizing and equity.

Washington will work with a group called the Breakfast Club which is open to everyone and meets weekly on Saturdays in a space called the Living Room on Glenwood Avenue in North Minneapolis. For the Made Here Youth Edition, he will lead a team of teenage girls in a project called Image is Everything!? to initiate a journey of self-discovery through video and film. He will help them learn how to access their own stories and teach them how to use cameras and edit shots and videos, use photojournalism methods, and apply still life portraiture and storyboard approaches to dive deeper into self-awareness. The objective is to highlight how art changes and transforms individuals from the inside. They will examine how the beauty industry directly relates to identity and look at newspapers, magazines and fashion sites to examine their impact. Washington feels this is vital for young girls of color, because the images confronting them can often dictate self-worth. The students will craft their own narratives using collage, stills and interview videos. They will gain interpersonal skills during the interviews and conversations with the public. The intent is to encourage them to analyze their relation to pop-culture iconoclasm and common consumer motifs. The students final work will reflect what they have learned and challenge passersby to actively engage. It will rely on elements of visual stimulation and visual monitors in the window as an opportunity for the students to share their research and an interactive framework.

Jason Quay Quaynor was born in Southern California and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Quay Quaynor is not only a young, emerging artist, he is also a youth worker. When he started volunteering as a youth with Junior Achievement, he always took it upon himself to give back to the community. In college, he mentored and tutored youth who attended Marcus Garvey Leadership Charter School. He helped elementary middle school students learn math, English, history and personal skills while volunteering. Currently, Quay is balancing his growing artistryhe is working on his second EPwhile still contributing to the development of youth by working with teens in the Best Buy Teen Tech Center in the Minneapolis Central library. He helps them develop their skills in technology, audio production, video production, graphic design, digital photography and more.

The Best Buy Teen Tech Center @ Minneapolis Central Library is a creative and safe out-of-school-time learning environment where young people work with adult mentors to explore their own ideas, develop new skills and build confidence in themselves through the use of technology. It is youth centered, interest-driven and project based, emphasizing learning more than teaching. They encourage teens to learn by tinkering, playing and designing with technology.

Charles Fraser has been the scenic designer for productions with the Burning House Group, John Hassler Theater and Saint Louis Park High School. He has taught a broad range of theatre disciplines in elementary schools, high schools, colleges and universities across the United States as part the Guthrie Theaters Education and Outreach Department. He is also a current teaching artist with Hennepin Theatre Trust, Avalon Charter School, Saint Paul Conservatory for the Performing Arts, the Phipps Center for the Arts, Upstream Arts and Concordia University. Additionally, he has taught for StageCoach Theatre Arts School, Childrens Theatre and Walt Disney Entertainment. As an actor, he has recently appeared in the Jungle Theaters Driving Miss Daisy, Park Square Theatres The Diary of Anne Frank and Actors Theater of Minnesotas Princess Diana the Musical. He has also performed in the Guthrie Theaters Othello, The Comedy of Errors, and Ah, Wilderness!; Theatre de la Jeune Lunes Tartuffe; and Park Square Theatres August: Osage County, Defiance, and The Triumph of Love. He has also acted with Illusion Theatre, Yellow Tree Theatre, Minnesota Shakespeare Project, Jon Hassler Theater, Minnesota Festival Theatre, Playwrights Center, Brave New Workshop, Thirst and Mystery Café, among others. Outside Minnesota, he has worked with Lincoln Amphitheatre in Indiana, New Stage Theatre in Mississippand aboard Disney Cruise Lines Disney Magic. Up next: returning to The Buddy Holly Story at the History Theatre.

He will work with the group to do a conceptual set design for Almost, Maine, a play by John Cariani that takes place in multiple settings during the winter in the remote, mythical and almost-town of Almost, Maine.

The participating kids are from Avalon Charter School in St. Paul.