About Arts for Something:

Hosted at BICA in collaboration with BICA School and Civic Arts (a project by teaching artist Robin Lee Jordan), Arts for Something! is an interdisciplinary program for young and emerging artists (ages 14–19) exploring the intersection of art and civic engagement.

Over the course of the series, participants will build creative skills—like screen-printing, zine-making, sewing, literary arts, and specialized visual arts—while learning how these tools can be used to support civic initiatives such as social justice, activism, and local community needs.

Young artists who commit to all eight sessions (with up to two excused absences) will have the opportunity to create and present a civic arts–inspired project in any medium. These projects will be featured in a collaborative zine and shared during a final exhibition and celebration in June.

Workshops take place the first Saturday of every month, October through May (skipping January), from 12–2 PM. 

Session Details:

How can you turn "what is" into "what could be" when you combine collage techniques and found poetry? What lurks beneath the surface? What possiblities hover at the edges? (Found poetry is when you create poetic language using text you find from other sources.)

Led by:

Robin Lee Jordan is a teacher, poet, collage artist, and zine-maker. She has an MFA in poetry and has published multiple chapbooks and many zines. Along with her teaching artist work at Arts for Learning & WNY Book Arts Center, she is currently a co-organizer of an annual ZineFest, runs civic arts-themed programs for youth & adults at The Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Arts & Burning Books, and works with aging artists at Delavan Grider Community Center.