Fulton Houses After-school Program
Feb 10, 2015

The Whitney’s Coordinator of Family Programs, Billie Rae Vinson, recently led a multi-session after-school program for children at Fulton Houses, a NYCHA housing development near the Whitney’s new building in the Meatpacking District. I asked Billie a few questions about the program.

DH: Why did you do this program?

BRV: Fulton Houses lost one of their after-school programs and this was an opportunity for the Whitney to fill the gap and strengthen our relationship with one of our community partners. We wanted to familiarize the kids with Whitney artists so that they feel a connection with what they’ll see when the Museum opens to the public in May 2015.

DH: How have you worked with Fulton Houses before?

Fulton Houses is a member of WECAN (Whitney Education Community Advisory Network) [a group of local residents, teachers, parents, and representatives from social service providers and community-based organizations in the Whitney’s new neighborhood]. For the past two years, we’ve participated in neighborhood events with Fulton Houses including Harvest Fest in the fall and Night Out Against Crime in the summer. At both events alongside music, dancing, food, and other fun activities, Whitney educators led hands-on art making activities inspired by the Museum’s collection.

DH: How did you plan the program?

BRV: The program was planned as a series of workshops over eight weeks and each session focused on a particular artwork in the Whitney’s collection. We wanted to choose works that would lend themselves to art activities based on what the children saw. Each art-making project was designed to help the kids understand the ideas behind the work and to experiment with a wide range of materials.

DH: What was your biggest challenge?

BRV: We couldn’t see the actual artworks because the Whitney is closed in preparation for the opening of the new building in May. The finer details such as brushstrokes in a painting, texture, scale, and the different angles of a sculpture are missing when we show images of the works on a screen, so the program became more about being inspired by materials and process and art-making. For example, the kids used colored tape to create dynamic figures for a collaborative tarpaulin inspired by Keith Haring’s work. 

BRV: Another project was based on Lee Bontecou’s sculptural work [Untitled, 1961, 1961] where the kids used twine, sandpaper, and other everyday materials to create relief sculptures that included natural and manmade imagery.

DH: What did you do at the end of the program?

The program ended with an exhibition of the kids’ artwork and a reception for the children and their families onsite at the Fulton Houses. I have always felt that exhibiting children’s work is very important because they feel a sense of pride seeing their work displayed. It was also a chance to bring the students, Whiney staff, and people from the community together to celebrate the work the kids had done and to get to know one another.

DH: What was the takeaway for you?

BRV: Visiting the kids and adults from their families [who helped with the program] in their space at Fulton Houses gave us the opportunity to form deeper relationships with them and become more a part of the community. 

By Dina Helal, Manager of Education Resources and Billie Rae Vinson, Coordinator of Family Programs