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7th Annual Futureself Show at Smokebrush

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Contributed by: Sarah Milteer on 1/14/2008

FutureSelf opened their 7th Annual Celebration Art Show at the Smokebrush Gallery, on the first Friday of 2008 and what an opening it was! Almost three hundred community members came out to enjoy the compelling art work of a variety of advanced and entry level FutureSelf artists, ages 12 to 19 years old. Visual mediums consisted of oil paintings, mosaic, origami, polymer sculpture, weaving, environmental art, metal jewelry, encaustic (wax and pure pigment), masks and bikewheel art, to name a few.The evening climaxed when Stacy Dyson and the poets from Community Prep School performed some of their poetry from their chapbook, My Won Traveler.

Below is a statement written by Wendy E. S. Mike the Founding and Executive Director of FutureSelf that encapsulates the growth and development of FutureSelf from its first workshop to this 7th Annual Celebration show. Enjoy these poignant reflections and if you haven't seen the show please stop by the Smokebrush, 218 W. Colorado Ave., Suite 102 before January 17 to catch a glimpse of what the youth in our community have to express.

Looking around the gallery at this year's FutureSelf Annual Celebration Art Show, I see art and evolution. Some of our students have been with us for many years, and it shows. The sophistication and volume of their work...it has been amazing to witness this growth. Always intelligent and with their own concerns, when we met they were relatively young and innocent, smaller and with higher voices. Now they look pretty much like adults. They have filled out, physically and emotionally. Their lives and their art have become more complex. They are dealing with issues of identity and self-expression: "Who am I and who am I becoming?" They have taken risks as artists, and are grappling with the future, their identities, their "path." In recent discussions, we talked about risk and leadership, and the notion that "to whom much is given, much is expected." It is one thing to take risks artistically, and another to take a risk like stepping into a leadership role. It is one thing to take on your own development, and quite another to stand for the development of another. Perhaps this is the first step in looking at what it is to "give back," and this evolution of perception and action, really of"being," is essential to what it is to become an adult.

Of course there are parallels with the organization itself. FutureSelf has walked a similar path,is "coming of age" and in the last year has grappled with these same questions. Who are we in this community, what do we essentially provide, how can we be the best that we can be, not just for the young people we serve, but for the non-profit sector, youth development, the arts, and businesses and organizations? FutureSelf entered a strategic planning process and changed our mission to become more expansive. We identified and adopted core values:

Integrity informs everything we do
We possess an unstoppable belief in people, art and the creative process
Our espirit de corps is fun
We are passionately accepting of every person who comes in contact with FutureSelf
..and our mission is now simply "FutureSelf invites transformation through the arts."

Seven years ago when I spoke of FutureSelf's mission and goals using the arts to empower the lives of "at-risk youth," people looked at me as if I were I was nuts! But there were always those that believed, that could instinctively "get" how valuable the process we offered was; who supported us from the beginning and without whom we would not be here. Now the buzz about the value of creativity in the workplace is becoming widespread and accepted. Claims like "the MFA (Masters of Fine Arts) is the new MBA" don't seem so far fetched. As an unknown future looms, we see that perhaps the most valuable skills are adaptability, innovation, empathy and communication. We turn to the arts, where these skills have been inherently trained for years.

The name FutureSelf was chosen to indicate our belief that you can have a great life no matter what the past has been. This last year, we saw the tremendous success of all of our programs, of fundraising, of ilLuminART, of huge community support indicated byspecial events like the Dave Valentin Jazz concert, and "Flaunt: Fashion Under the Bridge." If FutureSelf's success as an organization is an indication of growing and widespread embrace of the essential nature of the arts, then we are all in good hands, with hope for the future.

Thanks to you all.

Amber Cote

Program Director, FutureSelf

Project Manager, ArtWorx!

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Sarah Milteer

Colorado Springs , CO

Sarah Milteer has posted 3 stories and 0 comments since joining on 9/21/2007. Sarah Milteer 's average story rating is 5.

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