Professional Membership

Featured Member

2005 "Do It Your Damn Self!" National Youth Film Festival L-R, Festival founder Paulina Mauras, festival coordinator Monika Navarro, TMP member Kevin, guest speaker Producer Lisa Cortes, CAC executive director Marsha Stewart, TMP alumna Ardeene Goodrich and guest youth producer Carmen from Detroit, Michigan.

Since its creation in 1970, the Community Art Center’s Teen Media Program (TMP) has provided media arts training to youth from Cambridge public housing. This innovative program—which allows underserved youths ages 13–19 to express themselves through video, music, and photography—was recently honored at the 2005 Coming Up Taller Awards in Washington, DC.

The TMP has offered more than 1,000 students technical training in a variety of media arts, affording them a vehicle to voice their viewpoints, a feeling of responsibility and empowerment over their education, and, for many, an entryway into a career in the arts. Students attend workshops on the art medium of interest to them. The classes cater to individual skill levels, and many students attend advanced training sessions in addition to the supplementary workshops on an array of disciplines, including scriptwriting and painting, that will expand their production abilities.

Their signature project is the “Do It Your Damn Self!” National Youth Film Festival (DIYDS), the longest-running youth-produced festival of youth filmmaking in the country. Every fall, TMP teens curate a festival of short films from submissions from around the country. With DIYDS, TMP teens gain valuable experience in critical thinking, media literacy, team building, and public speaking. This year’s tenth annual festival will be touring this spring to area colleges, universities, schools, and community agencies.

In addition to their involvement in the DIYDS festival, TMP members also work on their own productions. Participants attend the program at least one afternoon per week, with many attending every day after school; they drive the decision-making and work in a collaborative manner with each other as well as with the TMP teacher. If they are making a narrative film, they decide together what story they want to tell. They write the dialog, act, shoot, and edit. If they are making a documentary, they choose the subject, do the necessary research, conduct interviews, and then follow a similar production process. They critique each other's work, sharpening both their critical and interpersonal skills. In the summer, the core groups phase into an eight-week intensive video and photography workshop, working 25–30 hours a week.
 
Over the past 10 years, TMP has produced close to 100 videos, ranging from personal and community themes to music videos and documentaries. The young people have won over a dozen local and national awards from organizations such as the National Federation of Local Cable Programmers, the National Black Programming Consortium, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Cambridge Peace Commission.

The Community Art Center, Inc. provides a continuum of care for families beginning with a licensed school age child care program, serving ages 5–12 and extending through the TMP. Their programs serve children living in Cambridge's Newtowne Court/Washington Elms public housing developments and its surrounding neighborhood. Their innovative programs engage young people in exploring their identities and creative talents through processes of critical thinking, problem solving, and self-expression. These opportunities develop social, art, and work skills—leading to higher education and active involvement in their communities' development. The Community Art Center encourages long-term relationships with the arts, with the center, and among peers.