13 years and counting........

The "FACES / a children's arts collaborative" after-school arts program has been serving the Northside of Pittsburgh for 13 years now. We offer free classes to the children of Manchester with a curriculum developed around the discipline of self portraiture. We are coming to the end of the semester before school is over for the summer. Prior to ending the year we will have our annual exhibit for the kids on display at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Northside.

A successful school year ended in the Spring of 2014 and a new one about to begin in the Fall of 2014........

The 2013-2014 Fall, Winter and Spring school year proved to be a good window of creativity for the children at both the Manchester Charter School [MACS] and the Manchester Pgh Public School K-8. The kids interacted well with the Collaborative Arts Program to produce some very interesting images and the Annual year end exhibition at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh on the Northside.

We are beginning our 13th year of offering this arts program to the children of Manchester beginning October 1st.

FACES/ a children's art collaborative is about to begin it's 11th year of offering art classes to the children of Manchester, on the Northside of Pittsburgh, PA. We begin our first class Wednesday with the MACS Charter School children and are expecting a full class of students. We will be posting information about the classes as they unfold.

                                                                                                                                      Francis Oct, 2013

©2013 francis crisafio, all rights reserved

©2013 francis crisafio, all rights reserved

MACS Charter School class, Manchester, Pittsburgh, PA.

These photos are of one of the classes of kids from the MACS Charter School that Meda and I go to each week during the school year to teach. These kids just finished up the semester and were posing for a group shot showing off their t-shirts with their finished collages ironed on. The semester can be chaotic sometimes as it is hard for the kids to visualize the final result of a semesters effort. But in the end they are usually very happy with their designs and proudly wear their shirts.

Francis 08.05.13

More pictures from the end of the year Annual Exhibition / 2013

The kids really come together to celebrate the work they did with us all year long. Here are more photos from this years Annual Exhibition at the Carnegie Library on the Northside of Pittsburgh.  The Collaborative served almost 60 children this school year of 2012 / 2013.

We reach children in both the Pittsburgh Public School and the Charter School both located in Manchester. We want to thank our Sponsors: Keith Kondrich and Darlene Collier from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and our school partners: Ms. Walker and Ms. Strader from the MACS Charter School and Ms. Cherry and Ms. Bivins from the 

Pittsburgh Manchester PreK-8 for making this another great year!

Francis 07.02.13

End of Year Exhibit at Carnegie Library

FACES' Tenth Annual year-end exhibit is currently on view in the Children's Section of the Carnegie Library on Federal Street, Northside.  You can see more than 50 T shirts displaying self-portraits of students from Manchester K-8 and Manchester Academic Charter School. 

Meda 06.26.13

FACES / a children's arts collaborative

                                                                                                                                                  © 2013 franciscrisafio                                                                    

FACES / A Children’s Art Collaborative is an after-school arts program that has offered arts curriculum in the Manchester neighborhood of Pittsburgh since 2003. Meda Rago and Francis Crisafio have worked with over 500 children, mainly in the second to sixth grade age range. Initially funded by the Manchester Citizen’s Corporation with   Collin Kelly, the program is now generously funded and sponsored by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Keith Kondrich and Darlene Collier from the Society have been instrumental in sustaining the program. 

The classes are built around the concept of self-portraiture as it relates to identity.  The students begin with a pencil drawing based on a photo portrait Francis makes of each student. From the photo Meda and Francis instruct each student in making a contour line drawing. The line drawing is the foundation upon which the students then learn how to create a self-portrait collage from cut out textures and images from recycled magazines.

Along the way of this process students encounter issues of identity, gender, class and race through the artistic metaphors of form and color. The final pieces are made into inkjet transfers ironed onto a T-shirt for each child. The students each receive their shirt which they wear and take home as an outcome of their work.

At the end of the school year FACES hosts a exhibition/reception for the students, family, teachers, and community where a copy of the T's are displayed. For the past several years we have been fortunate to have our reception and display at the Northside Carnegie Library. 

Occasionally, FACES has offered bookmaking classes where students explore autobiographical writing along with photographic explorations.  We hope to offer this class on a more regular basis in the near future.

Meda Rago & Francis Crisafio partnered and founded FACES in 2003.  Both are working artists.