Beth

Beth is committed to building community arts infrastructure, using her creative energy and multifaceted skills to move resources. She has facilitated workshops and classes in partnership with the Attic Youth Center, Spiral Q Puppet Theater, Fleisher Art Memorial, Southwest Community Enrichment Center, and The Philadelphia Museum of Art. Through organizing a network of youth-run print shops and cultivating safe spaces for youth and adults, she challenges the community to explore and express their creative potential.  She sees screen-printing workshops as a powerful resource for generating political propaganda, developing sustainable business and supporting cultural production. A few of her past projects include Print for Change, a 15-week workshop for youth, which was supported by a 2008 Art and Change Grant, and creating posters in collaboration with Jews for a Just Peace. In the last five years, Beth has invested much of her creative resources to unpacking what she believes is an oppressive educational model that is a cornerstone of our society. She is a co-founder of Reclaim: Silk Screen Production and Community Workshop, a community-based print shop, where she has helped create t-shirts and posters for a variety of social justice organizations including Media Mobilizing Project, Casino Free Philadelphia, and Iraq Veterans Against the War. Believing that through networks and collective action people can create the most impact she doesn’t cease to pull together art, youth and social change. Beth is currently a member of Prints Link Philadelphia, a coalition of artists and teachers who will present a youth forum in 2010 in conjunction with Philagrafika’s International Print Biennial.

Beth will conduct research to craft a 15-week curriculum that will be grounded in examples about how screen-printing and print shops have been and continue to be used in movements for social change. She will then implement this curriculum at Quan Blanche's print shop in Fall 2008. This course will be free, open to individuals ages 13-25 and will provide hands on skill sharing about the nuts and bolts of creating screen printed posters and tee shirts.