Fashion Design 1: Sketching & Portfolio Development

Because Fashion Design was our most popular class last summer, we are now offering two sections. Take either one or take both! Experienced students work at a level that is appropriate to their skill set.

Fashion Design I focuses on the conventions of fashion sketching and strong portfolio development. Girls learn the same process for communicating their concepts that professional designers use – they start byresearching and collaging market boards, inspiration boards, and swatch and color boards. These shape the concepts for their own clothing lines. Girls may envision evening wear with a 20s flare, tailored punk for the teen set, or a fresh children’s line.

Students begin sketching using a fashion template (or croquis), and the teacher guides them in proportion, expression, line quality and texture as well as shows them quick tricks and techniques. Then, each student creates her own fashion croquis that expresses her style, and she further refines her clothing concept.

Portfolio presentation is also an important component of this class. Students learn how to present theirillustrations and communicate their ideas – in a clear but creative way. This is a great way to start or add toa portfolio for future classes, college applications, or personal use.

Fashion Design 2: recycled-to-runway workshop

Because Fashion Design was our most popular class last summer, we are now offering two sections. Take either one or take both! Experienced students work at a level that is appropriate to their skill set.

Are you a fan of Project Runway? Do you turn worn plaid jackets into funky cropped blazers? Slacks into skirts? Drab into fab? Then our Recycled-to-Runway Workshop is a perfect fit! By recycling tossed-aside or outdated clothing to create one-of-a-kind pieces, girls learn about fabric selection, pattern-making, draping, seams, trims and notions, stitching, and finishing an outfit.

Girls work on independent and group projects, and the class size is limited to 8 students. Each girl enrolled in this class brings a couple of old items – from her own closet, her mom’s closet, the local vintage store or goodwill – to contribute to the salvaged clothing collection in class. The resulting pieces are amazing – fit for the runway, and you would never guess their origins.

This workshop not only adds to girls’ fashion design skill-sets, but inspires them in creating their own pieces at home and with friends. Fashion Design I complements this class but is not a pre-requisite.

Illustration & Story Arts

Tell a story without using words. Communicate through your illustrations – making them gentle, powerful, mysterious, whimsical. From the beginner to the experienced illustrator, girls work at an individual pace to try create their own styles and use illustration as a creative, communicative tool.

The first half of the session focuses on illustration styles, techniques and skills. Students create a lot of work and explore line quality, shading, texture and color. They sharpen their technical and artistic skills, and play with a variety of drawing and painting media.

In the second half of the session, girls apply their skills to storytelling. They use illustration to evoke emotion, develop characters, and create conflict, tension and resolution. They combine images and words to create visual narrative for single panel illustrations, comic strips or storyboards. Students experiment with lettering, inking, composition and perspective.

The areas covered in this class provide a foundation for girls to pursue their ideas in the formats of comics and graphic novels as well as in storyboards for film or animation. For students who love to write and draw, this is a perfect complement to Creative Writing.

Toy Design

The design process is a valuable approach to many tasks; it uses all parts of our mind, puts our hands to work, and turns up unexpected results!

In this class, we take a broad look at what constitutes “toy” and “play.” Girls build their ideas around activities and issues of their own choice. In other words, this is not a class just about tickle-me-elmos or plastic blocks. Each student defines her own audience and type of play – it could anything froman interactive console for sharing photos to a new type of sporting equipment to a room-size dream mobile as a concept for displaying favorite memorabilia.

Students move quickly through each step in the design process. Each girl starts with a general concept and narrows her field through research. Then she brainstorms a variety of ideas, choosing her favorite ones to explore in sketches and 3-D mock-ups. At the end of the class, she assembles a portfolio of her work – from the initial inspiration and market boards to some example sketches to the final model.

This is a fun, engaging and powerful approach that applies to so many types of projects and unlocks
academic strengths within each student.

Creative Writing

If you adore the written word, constantly look for new sources of inspiration, and want to communicate more clearly, effectively and creatively – welcome to our creative writing workshop!

We cover form, style and critical mechanics. We address character development, story line, dialogue, and we consider effective modes of writing. Through a variety of projects, students apply critical tools to their writing, such as journaling, first-person expression, reporting and writing in response. Students learn to bring clarity and nuance to their work.

The instructor guides the class, and students benefit from a workshop environment. Girls read their work aloud and review peers’ writing. They offer and receive criticism in a productive and appropriate way and edit their own work by integrating constructive feedback.

Last summer, the writers also led story slams, attended events in Philadelphia, and participated in local open-mic nights! All students contributed to a final anthology – a printed and bound piece they bring home. To see some examples, just click on “Composition Book” from the home page!

No writer writes in a vacuum. Students truly come away from this program with a greater tool kit for inspiring and developing their own work.

Against the Grain

There are many ways to approach problem solving – upside-down, outside the box, blue sky. It has many names, and ours is to think against the grain. Sometimes there is a need to take a radically new approach, try an unknown path, or return to an idea that had been dismissed because it was ‘too far out there.’

Last year, this was offered as a smaller workshop, and it was so popular, we are dedicating a course to it. In each class meeting, students are presented with a common problem, current issue, or familiar situation. We start by brainstorming all the typical ways of solving that problem; then, we flip these upside down and shake them up. The class is forced to consider completely new possibilities, and then work backwards to devise a few solutions to try out.

We also take a historical view, referring to giants of our past who have made great leaps by taking radical steps. We draw in elements of sociology and behavior, and make use of E. De Bono’s Lateral Thinking. We ask students to step back and see the larger picture, then look at it from a completely different view.

Students surprise themselves with the innovative solutions they reach through a guided but fresh thought process. They leave the program with new views on how to approach conundrums and address challenges in any facet of school or life.

Public Art

In Public Art, our goal is for students to consider the role of art in the public sphere, and to try their hands at it. They learn about the roles of community engagement, collaboration, cultural factors, and site-specificity.

We start with a survey of historical and current examples and, in doing so, touch on areas of urban planning, art history, architecture and sculpture. The class takes a look at local pieces and chooses a site for their own piece – on campus or in a nearby park. Students collaborate to develop their ideas and intents and the best form in which to express these. Using a variety of large-format 2-D and pliable 3-D materials, they fabricate and assemble a piece on-site.

Through their project, they observe first-hand how temporary public art can effect the setting and the way people perceive and use the space. Perhaps the piece has expected results. Certainly the process will bring unexpected challenges and thought-provoking surprises. They leave with a better understanding of both art in the public sphere, and the surprising outcomes of putting a plan to action.

Let’s see what they come up with!

Hip Hop & Modern Dance

Our dance program is a rigorous physical exploration of hip-hop, jazz and modern styles. Our choreography component challenges girls to relate movement within an individual’s role and across the dance troupe.

Girls work on body alignment, mood and tone, technique precision, and style. In addition to practicing dance, girls learn to choreograph their pieces. We start with ways to draw inspiration – from a word, an image, a time of day, a place – and how to translate this into dance. The teacher guides them in expression, tempo, dynamics, and collaboration. At the end of the session, the dancers present their pieces – of course!

The practice of dance and choreography has far-reaching applications. It is a metaphor for ways of working and understanding other processes around us. It teaches rigor, focus and group work. Above all, dancing and choreography are purely fun!

We do not require a specific level of experience for girls to enroll in this class; however, girls should have some background in dance (any style) so that they are comfortable moving and trying new things. Before the session begins, our instructor emails all girls to learn more about their experience levels and what they hope to get out of the course. She uses this to tailor the class to each group of students.

Acting & Improv

Our Acting & Improv Workshop is a great fit for girls who are interested in theater and are looking for a fun way to hone their skills as well as for girls who would like to present or perform with greater confidence.

Improv is a wonderful way to unleash creativity. It enhances spontaneity and comedic timing, and it builds confidence. Students learn to focus quickly and think on the spot. The skills they learn carry over into public speaking and problem solving. Girls have a great time with a variety of exercises and techniques. The teacher creates a supportive workshop environment, and girls feel comfortable trying out new techniques and really going for it.

The acting techniques in this workshop focus on transforming personal stories into improvised theater pieces using movement, music, monologue and dialogue. In the short time period, this focus allows girls to improve specific skills, draw acting inspiration from real life, and apply improv techniques. It also creates community and connection.

Girls with little or lots of experience are welcome to join the workshop! The teacher works with each student at her own skill level. Girls also learn from each other, as they build trust and work together.