OJMCHE is excited to share that we are partnering with Portland’s inaugural Creative Laureate, Julie Keefe to offer a Photography and Social Justice Summer Youth Program. This six-day virtual program will teach students basic photography skills, as well as how to capture moments that document and confront injustices. Students will also be introduced to work by photographers working on these issues. Participants join in on one-hour zoom sessions for five days, where each day they will get an opportunity to practice their skills with a different assignment. After the initial week, students will have several weeks to work on a photography project that addresses a social justice topic of their choice. All students and participants will virtually meet again on a sixth and final day in August to share their final projects.
- For students in grades 7 – 12
- Week of July 20th from 10:30 – 11:45 am + Aug 17th at 10:30 am (present projects)
- Cost: $100 for the entire program. We have four partial scholarships available, email education@ojmche.org for more information.
About Julie Keefe
Julie Keefe is an artist with 25+ years of experience working primarily in documentary and community-based art. Her work includes installations and collaborations with a variety of institutions, health care organizations, artists, children, and communities.
Working in collaboration with Hip Hop Artist, Mic Crenshaw, in 2018, Ms. Keefe created the Ask the Question Project, a multi-layered project that worked with suicide attempt survivors in the NW to tell their stories with the goal of saving lives and breaking stigma.
In 2008 she created Hello Neighbor, a state-wide public art project, in collaboration with Caldera’s youth program. Hello Neighbor employs a social practice model in neighborhoods affected by change, and uses interviews and photographs to introduce children to their neighbors and ultimately neighbors to each other by displaying large-scale photographic portraits and creating conversation in public spaces. Hello Neighbor continues in communities throughout the NW.
From 2013 to 2017 she served as Portland’s inaugural Creative Laureate, a position that uses the Office of the Mayor, and the Laureate role, as a platform to advocate for the arts, arts education, equity, creative industries and practice and the overall cultural health of Portland. In 2013 Fast Company [Business+Design Magazine] named her to their annual 100 Most Creative People in Business.