Zeum Presents United States of San Francisco: Together We Are the City

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Zeum, San Francisco's arts and technology museum for kids of all ages, introduces United States of San Francisco: Together We Are the City, a dynamic collection of multimedia projects co-designed and curated by high school students from the ZeumMaster Teen Internship Program. The new Spiral Gallery exhibit will open on February 6, 2011 and remain on view until May 24, 2011.

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"San Francisco is a diverse city with many unique, disparate, and often divided neighborhoods," said Audrey Yamamoto, Zeum's Executive Director. "We challenged our ZeumMaster teens to create artwork that told a story and answered a real-world problem: How can we strengthen neighborhood connections in San Francisco? The resulting exhibition shows that while there are differences among each neighborhood, there are also common threads that serve as powerful connections."

Guided by professional artists, designers, and architects, the ZeumMasters applied design thinking principles including field research, ideation and prototyping to create representations of the distinct neighborhoods in which they reside. In collaboration with One Economy and the Infomural Project, Zeum also hosted a two-month series of hands-on design workshops to generate community-contributed artwork for the United States of San Francisco: Together We Are the City exhibition to complement the ZeumMasters' "state reports" featuring photography, illustrations, icons and a mobile application inspired by the distinct San Francisco regions. Over 800 youth (ages 3-12) and families participated in Community Mapping and Mobile App Design workshops to develop integrated multimedia representations of different San Francisco neighborhoods.

"Our collaboration with One Economy and Infomural added a layer of technological innovation and community involvement never before seen at Zeum," said Audrey Yamamoto, Zeum's Executive Director. "This exhibition is unique because of the community's collective involvement with the project. From start to finish, art professionals and Zeum's staff worked alongside our teen interns to jointly organize workshops, neighborhood audio tours, and the opening reception event."

"The United States of San Francisco: Together We Are the City exhibition will enable Zeum's visitors to develop a genuine and informed connection to the city of San Francisco through youth-generated multimedia projects. While the ZeumMasters have addressed the design challenge of bridging San Francisco neighborhoods through digital documentation of local communities, we also encourage general admission participants to come and play with creative tools to explore their own stories about their neighborhoods," said Sadie Wilcox, Lead Artist.

The exhibit will open with an afternoon reception on Sunday, February 6, 2011 (2:00pm to 4:00pm). During the event, family, friends, and community members are invited to contribute their personal interactions and stories about San Francisco's neighborhoods. Admission to the reception is free and open to the public.

United States of San Francisco: Together We Are the City is sponsored by the San Francisco Foundation. Partner artists were also supported through the generosity of Autodesk.

About Zeum: San Francisco's Children's Museum

Zeum is a community-based, non-profit organization that nurtures the 3Cs of 21st-century literacy – Creativity, Collaboration, and Communication – among all youth and families. By combining clay animation, music video production, live performance and digital art with imagination, Zeum's visitors become creators, animators, directors, performers, and designers.

Zeum opened its doors in October 1998 on the rooftop of Yerba Buena Gardens as part of a major 87-acre urban renewal project by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency in the South of Market area. Zeum's unique 34,000 square-foot facility includes technology studios, interactive activity stations, exhibit galleries, a community exhibit space, a 200-seat theater and the historic Zeum Carousel. For more information, visit http://www.zeum.org

About The Infomural Project

The Infomural Project aims to improve global access to and understanding of data by bringing information design to the streets. It proposes a new art form replicable anywhere in the world - the "infomural". The Infomural Project takes information design from the screen and onto the street - bridging the digital divide, bringing vibrant educational tools to local communities, and making the benefits of information design accessible to a wide, diverse audience.

About One Economy

One Economy is a global nonprofit organization that uses innovative approaches to deliver the power of technology and information to low-income people. More than 19 million people have used One Economy's online tools and resources, including the Public Internet Channel (www.pic.tv), to build better lives. One Economy has launched on-the-ground programs in 42 U.S. states, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. For more information, visit http://www.one-economy.com/

Lead Artists:

Marlon Sangana Ingram is a designer, artist, and educator. Marlon has developed and implemented a contemporary arts curriculum based upon local history, youth culture, technology, and Hip-Hop principles for over ten years. He has taught in CCSD public schools and after school programs, and taught youth from organizations including at The Foundation, 3rd Street Youth Center & Clinic, The Imagine Bus Project, and the Buchanan YMCA. Marlon's graphic design clients include Cost Plus, Sony, California African American Museum and OM Records.

Sadie Wilcox is a multimedia artist and educator. She currently works as an Artist-In-Residence at Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland and teaches in the Community Education Department at the San Francisco Art Institute. Among other exhibitions, her multimedia video work has been included in screenings at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow, Harvard University's Carpenter Center for the Arts in Cambridge, and Extravagant Bodies Film Festival in Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia.

http://www.sadiewilcox.com/

Featured Artists:

Fatimah Guienze is a native New Yorker, experiencing many areas of the city, art and architecture became a big part of her life from early on. Fatimah earned a BA in Architecture and Urban Studies from Yale University with her senior thesis focusing on two areas: Islamic Architecture in Spain, and Architecture and Artifact in Havana, Cuba. She began working with children while at Yale, leading tours of New Haven green spaces and developing dialogue about how green space affects neighborhoods.

Favianna Rodriguez is a celebrated printmaker and digital artist based in Oakland, California. Using high-contrast colors and vivid figures, her composites reflect literal and imaginative migration, global community, and interdependence. Whether her subjects are immigrant day laborers in the U.S., mothers of disappeared women in Juarez, Mexico, or her own abstract self portraits, Rodriguez brings new audiences into the art world by refocusing the cultural lens. Through her work we witness the changing U.S. metropolis and a new diaspora in the arts. http://www.favianna.com/

SOURCE Zeum: San Francisco's Children's Museum