Art Force 5 visits New York City, as part of the 2022 Women’s Empowerment Draft and Women’s History Month
Ten Alfred University students spent this week in New York City, visiting five public schools named for historically significant women. The students, part of Art Force Five, helped local students learn more about the women for whom their schools were named.
Ten Alfred University students spent this week in New York City, visiting five public schools named for historically significant women. The students, part of Art Force Five, helped local students learn more about the women for whom their schools were named. They also led the students in painting ceramic tiles that, once assembled, will represent the five iconic figures.
The Alfred University students: Fara Doura, a Brooklyn resident; Jeanice Wright, also of Brooklyn; Daisy Cantor-Moore of Manhattan; Samuel Adu-tutu, Bronx; Hennessey Olivera, Harlem; David Seatts Koonce, Bronx; Nene Diabate, Bronx; Mel Mercedes, Bronx; Dennis Arroyo, Bronx; and Emily Woo, Manhattan.
Under Art Force Five’s Women’s Empowerment Draft program, the students visited the Sarah Smith Garnet public school, in Brooklyn; Celia Cruz High School of Music, Bronx; Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Manhattan; Emma Lazarus Elementary, Brooklyn; and Rosa Parks Elementary, Queens.
Art Force Five’s WED is modeled on professional sports teams’ annual drafts, celebrating the lives of historically vital women by organizing student “drafts” of women who have made historic contributions to society.
In New York City this week, Art Force 5 provided art materials in addition to sports-themed memorabilia celebrating the lives of the historic figures. Students at the five schools painted ceramic tiles to form mosaic portraits of the women for whom the schools are named. The individual mosaics will be gathered at the end of March – Women’s History Month – to form one large portrait of empowering women.
Bronx-based News 12 covered Art Force Five’s visit to Celia Cruz High School for Music, showing students at work on their tiles in addition to an interview with Dan Napolitano, founder of Art Force Five and Assistant Dean of Alfred University’s School of Art and Design.
According to Napolitano, Celia Cruz students also got a boost in their educational aspirations by interacting with the Art Force Five students. The older students led the young students “conversations about not only giving back to your community, but also aspiring for a degree.”
With Art Fore Five providing the instruction, the younger students were immersed in the biography of Cruz, a Cuban-American singer and one of the most popular Latin performers of the 20th century. At the peak of her popularity, Cruz was known as The Queen of Salsa. Watch the News 12 program here.
The Art Force Five initiative is part of a larger initiative in New York State celebrating the lives of historically important woman during Women’s History Month. Altogether, more than 20 SUNY and CUNY colleges and universities are reaching out to public schools around the state named for historic women.