AMPLIFY

A Summer Photography Workshop for High School Students

July 2021 - December 2021

Large-Scale Public Artwork

This workshop was designed to provide teens from the local Trenton and Ewing area with access to art studio resources that may otherwise be unavailable due to the Coronavirus pandemic or educational inequities. By employing the visual arts as an outlet for expression, fourteen high school students worked to produce large-scale public works that are on display at TCNJ's AIMM building through December 2021.

Developing Original Content

In addition to the basic principles of photography, students explored various photo-manipulation techniques as potential art-making processes. This included photo-weaving, photo-transfer, collage, embroidery, etching, and rephotographing flat prints with three-dimensional objects. Students were prompted to use these techniques to develop original imagery that explored their personal experiences, thoughts, and feelings.

amplify video draft.mp4

The Visual Arts and Life Skills

Engaging in collaborative art-making has the potential to develop the competencies of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL). This includes: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. The collective outcomes of this workshop will be used as part of a concurrent research study which examines the connections between Social-Emotional learning and the visual arts.


The Workshop Week


  • Day 1 Photography Foundations and Learning How To See

  • Day 2 Building Lightboxes and Creating Meaningful Compositions

  • Day 3 Brainstorming for Individual Piece and Collaging Photos with Multimedia Techniques for Manipulating Photos

  • Day 4 Collage Continued with More Multimedia Techniques

  • Day 5 Collaborative Piece and Crafting of Artists Statements



Outdoor Reception and Gallery Open House

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2021

5-7 PM


Artists, friends, family, TCNJ students, faculty and staff, as well as the community were welcome to join us in celebrating the work resulting from the AMPLIFY workshop. In addition to the window installations on the first and second floors of the building, smaller-scale works by the students were on display in AIMM 119.