| As we celebrate our 15th year here at In-Sight, we are pleased to take this opportunity to look back and note some of our accomplishments.
One of the most pivotal chages for us was the move to our own new space here at 45 Flat St. The move enabled us greater flexibility in our schedule and increased autonomy in our programming, as well as placing us right next door the Vermont Center for Photography. We have long held a partnership with VCP (formerly Flat St. Center for Photography) due to our Annual Exhibit and Silent Auction, but can now enjoy other neighborly benefits such as artist lectures for our classes, and a shared audience at Gallery Walk.
Another incredible growth in our programming was the creation and expansion of the Exposures program. Exposures originally started in October 2001 as a weekend retreat at the Hall Farm Center for Arts & Education for students from ICP at the Point in the Bronx and In-Sight students. The weekend was spent engaging in photographic and cultural exchanges (we are told activities included break dancing, pie-baking, discussing issues and loss from 9/11, and a visit to a corn maze). This summer has just seen the 4th full-blown Exposures adventure, which now includes Navajo students from Arizona and Lakota students from South Dakota in addition to New York City and Vermont students, all of whom meet up for three weeks of image and cultural exchanges on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. For accounts of this summer’s trip, please refer to the Exposures article featured in this newsletter.
In other programming developments, In-Sight has also seen new collaborations happening with the Morningside Shelter, the Brattleboro Area Hospice, and the Thompson House nursing home, all of these in addition to our ongoing commitment to offering workshops at the Retreat. We’ve also been looking for ways to increase our community visibility, including our recent Photo Fair that took place during April Gallery Walk in which we offered Polaroid and digital portraits to the community. Our capacity to offer digital programming has been supported by generous grants from the A.D. Henderson Foundation, the Thomas Thompson Trust, and the Robin Foundation. It has become a new objective at In-Sight to continue exploring ways to successfully incorporate digital programming into our existing traditional program.
And of course, throughout all of our growing and changing over the years, our mission has remained constant: to offer photography classes to all teens, regardless of ability to pay.
In-Sight has had many program directors over the years, all of whom have contributed their unique talents and efforts to the program. This August once again sees the transition between old and new as In-Sight director Sara Andrews and assistant director Nora Zale head off to graduate programs at Columbia in Chicago and NYU, respectively. It is hard to leave our beloved In-Sight: the multitude of community members and collaborations we have come to know, the board members whose support we have relied on, and certainly most of all, the students who have taught us so much about imaging the world around us. Nonetheless, we are pleased to leave In-Sight in the capable hands of Eric Maxen, as well as Leah Mae Dyjak who will be stepping in as the new Assistant Director. We have no doubts that Eric and Leah will easily pick up where we have left off, and steer In-Sight successfully into its next several years of growth.
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