This post was written by WACTAC member Nakami Tongrit-Green (see bio below).

Being on WACTAC for the past 2 years has been one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had in high school. So when Witt asked Kaitlyn (2nd year WACTAC member) and I to attend the Generation O: Conference at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, I was more than thrilled to accept the offer. Although I was excited about the trip, I didn’t really know what to expect. I knew we would be meeting teenagers from around the country who were involved in similar museum related programs but I wasn’t sure what they would be like, and what I could gain from meeting these people.

Day One in Boston was a bit tiring. As soon Kaitlyn and I arrived in Boston, Witt immediately took us around the city to look at some colleges, and kind of get a feel for the area. It was Kaitlyn and my first time in Boston and I have to admit, it’s a gorgeous city. We met Rosanna Flouty, the Teen Programs director at the ICA that night at dinner, as well as some other teen representatives and museum educators. It was nice to get a chance to meet people before the conference kicked off but I was too busy stuffing my face to really have a valuable dinner conversation with anyone. We ordered so much food that night. I had probably eaten enough for the whole weekend at that point…

Day Two consisted of a series of presentations from all the different Museums and teen programs, as well as a tour of the ICA and the Shepard Fairey exhibit, which was amazing! It was also great to hear all the different programs going on from Miami all the way up to Chicago – Museum of Contemporary Art Miami’s Women On The Rise Program, Museum of Modern Art’s Teen Council , Whitney’s Youth Insights, and Marwen.

By Day Three, it seemed like I knew everyone so well! The kids from the ICA showed us around Boston a little bit, and we had time to kick it at the hotel, which was nice. During the day, we had discussions on a variety of topics regarding Teen Programs in Museums and it was actually really beneficial to hear everyone’s opinions and ideas.

Day Four. No one wanted to leave!!

I was definitely inspired by this trip and I feel like I’m ready to kick off my final year on WACTAC! I would just like to say thanks to the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and shout out to all the great people we met there! I’d also like to thank the Walker for this great experience. Look out for even more fabulous WACTAC workshops and events this year :)

Nakami Green has been singing for as far back as she can remember, starting with sing-alongs to old Aretha Franklin records in her living room. Now, at age 16, she is a member of the Harding Senior High School concert choir and has performed solo as well as with other young musicians around the twin cities. She has worked as a singer/songwriter for the past two summers in the COMPAS Artswork Apprenticeship program and has sung with the Walker West gospel choir. Nakami has competed in talent shows and was a finalist last fall in her school’s singing contest, “Harding Idol”. She still finds time to sing along to her favorite Aretha tunes, but now works mainly on original compositions. She incorporates styles from every genre into her R&B sound, which is a reflection of her diverse taste in music. Nakami Green is currently working on her demo which she hopes to release in 2010.

After working for over 50 hours in the last four days I have to say that as I walked away from Don’t Sleep On It I was extremely tired. But I found myself wishing about an hour after it finished that I was still in that small room in the California Building creating another three hour installation.

Don’t Sleep On It was a huge success. Aside from the issue of the time-lapse video going out for 12 hours, everything went off without a hitch. This was due in large part to all of the artists, and their commitment to keep all of our participants motivated through their sleep-walking/arting.

Thanks to Erin and Brett Smith for the convenience store, Chris Pennington for the cardboard city, Hardland/Heartland for the black hole (with help from M-Deathsquads), Burlesque for the BRLSQOTHEQUE (and the wall of bass), Kristina Mooney for the misty mountain landscape, Liz Miller for the felt and burlap oasis, Scott Stulen and Andy Ducett for the couch-fort/pastel-polygon, and lastly Broken Crow for the porcupine and spray paint free-for-all. Each of these installations were amazing and surprisingly different.

I’d also personally like to thank WACTAC for their commitment to staying awake and helping remove trash and debris while everyone else was making art. Nick & Shannon, word up.

Thanks to all of our participants, sponsors and funders. There will be a slew of photos in the upcoming days, so be on the look-out for that, but for now here’s the time lapse video.

I’m going back to bed now.

Admin edit: Added the corrected, longer version of the time-lapse video.

If you haven’t already, check out the our first video interview with Hardland/Heartland.

Over the past years I have had difficulties getting teen artists to produce quality writing about their work. Many times a printed artist statement and biography written by a teen artist doesn’t give much insight to how they developed the work, what inspires them, or what they are trying to convey through their art. Although a print piece is valuable in terms of permanence, for teen programs, Art on Call has been the perfect companion to the traditional written artist statement. As mentioned in a previous post, Art on Call can be interesting way of bringing artists voices into galleries, cinema, and theater.

Check out some of the Art on Call artist statements that we produced for last year’s multidisciplinary teen art show 20 Under 20 and the 13 Most Beautiful Young Artists performance (Warning: shameless plug – check it out tomorrow night!).

I would love to hear about technologies that educators are using to bring young artists voices into exhibition spaces. Educators, do you have any success stories? Visitors, are these info devices helpful to you? Do you use these devices?

Blizzard, sleet, or snow, we hope to present the performance on Thursday night!

Last Wednesday, I had the pleasure of viewing Bruce McClure’s tech rehearsal and conversing with him after.

As a young filmmaker, I was enthralled with how meticulously he worked to engage his audience and enhance his work. I t was great to hear about the methods he used to create his piece. He gave the group a basic understanding of how film works and explained that he would use analog projectors to create intense configurations of light and sound. In addition to talking about his use of film, he also discussed the use of guitar peddles in his work. He told us how he came to use guitar peddles in his work. When working in his studio, a friend watched and suggested the use of the peddles to manipulate the sound. Once he tried it, he never performed without them. As a struggling college student, Mr. McClure had originally wanted to create drawings and paintings. However he found the combination of expensive art materials and the amount of space needed to house such art to be problematic, so he turned to less conventional methods of making visual art that would free him of space and money – creating combinations of light and sound that could only be performed live.

The following day, I attended Mr. McClure’s performance in the Walker’s Cinema. At first, the fast paced images and music was slightly stressful, but as the crowd became used to it, the rhythmic patterns of the sounds and lights made the experience quite relaxing. This performance followed a pattern like a book complete with an intro, body, climax, and conclusion. As with any good story, the climax could be quite stressful at times. However, he took care not to leave his audience uncomfortable for too long. He concluded his performance by turning the images and sound into a soothing rhythm of simple beats allowing the audience to relax and enjoy the resolution of the cacophony.

At the beginning of the performance, the images faded from seemingly random dancing light splotches to a calming image of beautiful birds of pure light. The image suddenly changed to circles and squares of one color occupied the center of the screen while a brilliantly bright light flashed across the entire screen in random intervals. It was bright enough that you wanted to cover your eyes to shield them from its brilliance. Captivatingly the image made me keep my eyes open, but when I managed to close my eyes, it only intensified the performance – the exact opposite of each image flashed on the back of my eye lids. I loved the odd sensation of the power given off by it. As I became use to the flashing brilliance of the full screen light, the image transformed into two new brilliant colors of the full screen flashing in succession to the partial screen in a pattern and speed that, looking at the projectors, looked like the sound of someone drumming their fingers on a table. While looking at the screen, it seemed as though there were four different projectors flashing different colored lights at the screen while, in reality, there were only three. Even though there were not many elements, each second of this performance was drastically different from the next and nothing ever seemed to repeat itself. In the end I asked myself, “How could something so stressful relax me?”

The sound, with its rhythmic patterns, loud volumes, and intense timings, was also something not easily captured or described outside of a live performance. At first, the volume was soft, with a single beat about once a measure and which gradually increased in speed. The second you got used to the single beat, the number of notes increased. However, by this time you were transfixed with the images flashing across the screen to the point that you heard it just as a light background to the image. The sound became faster paced and more intense every second through out the performance and when I listened, I heard more sounds than he was playing. In reality, the performance was enhanced by tricks that your mind would play on you. Near the end of the piece, it became so intense that many people had to leave because they simply could not stand the intensity any longer. About five minutes later, he gradually slowed the music, matching the pace of the beginning, cutting out images and any other sound allowing the audience to focus entirely on the rhythm of the piece and at the same time allowing people to adjust to the reality and hidden, rolling rhythm of everyday life.

After the performance, I was left in awe and unable to really think about anything else while my eyes and ears adjusted to normal sound and light. This performance was nothing like anything I had ever heard or seen before. It was inspiring to see what a person could do with some average equipment and an imagination. This performance showed me the intensity and beauty in things most people take for granted, sound and light. It took the everyday action of turning on and off lights and listening to basic sounds to the extremes. In all honesty, no description could ever replicate the full feeling of the piece. In my mind, few things could ever be equivalent to Mr. McClure’s performance and I look forward to seeing him perform again when next he returns to the Twins Cities.

We put Amy through the wringer before we deemed her worthy of reciting the WACTAC of Allegiance, and our in home stenographer was kind enough to give us a look at the transcripts:

What were you like in high school?
I was sort of obnoxious and immature, I’d say. I was actually sort of in the grade school stage in high school. You know, I was like pea-shooters and gum under desks. I wasn’t really artistic. I didn’t know I wanted to be an artist. Some of my family members were but I was more into music. You know I was in a marching band and then I went on to college and thought I was going to teach band music. Isn’t that funny? So, I was at the College of Fine Arts and I thought I wanted to go into radio television, in the production end of it, and then I started taking all these art classes. I went to see a counselor and I said, “I want to change out of fine arts into telecommunications.” And he said, and he said, “No, look at all these art classes you took!” I said, “well I can’t be an artist, I’m not good enough to be an artist!” and he said, “you don’t have to be good.” So, I took drawing, illustration, and sculpture for under grad and then it turned out I liked sculpture so much I mastered in it. But yeah, I was going to be a band director.

Muscle 2004 (near the Saint Paul Farmers Market)

What do you want people to get out of your art?
Great question. I guess I want them to have a feeling of wonderment or explore potentials and possibilities and sort of mix up the reality. You know, it’s hard to surprise people in 2008, almost 2009, and then when you can surprise them and make them take notice of something, especially an object, I think that’s big. And I just love doing it. So, I guess I do it for myself more than anything but I do sort of want to the hair on the back of their neck to stand up.

If you were to create a sculpture that visually translated what goes on in your head, what would it look like?
It would be pretty haphazard, and some parts wouldn’t be finished, it might tip over. Someone told me—and I’m an Aries—”Aries are great at starting projects, they love to start projects” and I was like, “That’s right!” But then the follow-through is just like discipline, so I do a little here, I do a little there.

What is your favorite sculpture of all time?

I think it would have to be Lee Bontecou, any one of the early sixties, when she did canvas over these steel frames, and she’d sew them. It was all found objects because she lived above a Chinese laundry mat and they would throw out these conveyer belts, so she cut up the canvas and then stretched them on these frames and she’d sort of burn into them and they looked really industrial and yet biomorphic. I just love her work. And I love Martin Puryear, too. And Carsten Holler.

What are your favorite materials and why?
Steel, probably. Lightweight steel. First of all it’s very forgiving. So if you cut it too short, that’s alright, you just add a little section onto it and if you cut it too long, you cut it again. So it suits my personality and my way of working and I also love to sew. I like fabrics a lot. And I sort of use steel as fabric. It’s just this additive, manic process, and it looks homemade and I like that it shows the hand of the artist.

If you could have dinner with three people living or dead who would they be and why?

Ghandi, is one. I always aspire to be more zen (laughs). I was just reading abo ut Shirley Chisholm, I would like to have met her. There’s a documentary on her life called CHISHOLM ‘72: Unbought and Unbroken …Who else, maybe Abe Lincoln or something. I live on Lincoln street (you know, Northeast has the streets named after presidents).

If you could design a senior prom, what would it look like?
It would be based on spaceships and rockets. There would be a lot of rope lights. And really good music. Like, you wouldn’t want to sit down, and you’d want to actually go, even if you didn’t have a date.

What advice could you give to teen artists?
I guess, keep on keeping on. Talent’s not even important—it’s one aspect. It’s perseverance, really. It’s a long distance race and somehow you have to make that process fit your life, because you’re not going to do it if it doesn’t. And you know, who succeeds in life? It’s the person who keeps trying. I think that’s more important than anything.

SO REMEMBER!!! Sign up for the sculpture workshop by January 16th. $30 dollars for Walker Members, $35 for non-members. Broke? Don’t worry about it, scholarships are available. To register contact Teen Programs at 612-375-7628 or email teenprograms@walkerart.org

If you would like to see more of Amy check out her Soap Factory interview below.

We extended the deadline for high school musicians to score our film until Wednesday, December 17th. Send a link to your myspace or email your demos to teenprograms@walkerart.org. If you are selected you will have the opportunity to perform live at the screening of this project in February. GET YOUR SUBMISSIONS IN! This is a great opportunity. You can rap, read poetry, submit as a band, submit as a choir, make a beat, etc… just get it in by the 17th.

To kick off every year, the Walker Art Center Teen Arts Council (WACTAC) meets with curators from the various programming departments to talk about what films, exhibitions, and performances might be of interest to them.  After the initial meet and greet, WACTAC brainstorms ideas for programs, events, and workshops that tie into the year’s programming.  Sometimes it takes a while for WACTAC to come to a collective decision about the programs they are interested in, but after hearing about Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips’ 13 Most Beautiful performance in February, they unanimously voted to create a project around it.

Taking 13 Most Beautiful as a template, WACTAC has begun creating 16mm film portraits based on Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests. The resulting films will accompany original soundtracks performed live by a select group of young musicians in late February in the McGuire Theater. We are searching for this “select group of young musicians”, so if you know high school age musicians, spoken word poets, rappers, or bands, please help us pass along the call for artists (click on the image below)! To participate – send music samples or a link to a myspace page to teenprograms@walkerart.org

We have been working with our resident 16mm filmmaker Allison Herrera. Our first shoot was a couple of weeks ago and here’s some photos from the day’s events.

Today, we got our first look at the films in the Cinema and we were really excited about the results.