Tag Archives: designprep

Hive NYC Teens Assemble – Jan/Feb 2013

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It’s the start of a new year and that means Hive NYC and its members are planning and launching even more great programs and events for young people across New York City. Everything including writing workshops, opportunities to help create museum experiences, video game competitions and more!

  • WNYC Radio Rookies is hosting a live chat about sexual cyberbullying that coincides with a new story airing on WNYC tomorrow, Jan. 8th by Rookie Reporter Temitayo Fagbenle. If you or your class is interested in participating, please contact Radio Rookies Associate Producer, Courtney Stein at cstein@wnyc.org. You can listen to Temitayo’s story here.
  • Applications are due tomorrow, Jan. 8th for the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum‘s DesignPrep Sophomore Scholars Program. Participants will attend Design Camp at North Carolina State University, a week- long program with projects involving each of the following design disciplines: architecture, landscape architecture, industrial design, art + design and graphic design. Visit http://www.cooperhewitt.org/events/designprep for more details and to apply.
  • The New York Public Library and The LAMP are kicking off Deconstructing Fashion workshops this week. Teens will investigate the real messages behind fashion industry advertisements and commercials and create multimedia responses. Workshops start tomorrow (and run every Tuesday at 4pm through Feb. 26) at Inwood Library in Manhattan. Another session on Thursdays at 4pm will run at the Bronx Library Center from Feb. 7 through March 28. Show up or visit nypl.org/teens for more details.
  • The American Museum of Natural History is hosting DIGITAL LEARNING WEEK 2013, a series of four, FREE one-day programs during Regents week, from Tuesday, Jan. 22 through Friday, Jan. 25th. The program is open to high school students (grades 9-12), and is an opportunity to test digital media tools and build prototypes for upcoming programs and exhibits, including an audio tour for the Hall of Pacific Peoples (Dum Dum!) and a Minecraft game related to the new exhibit, Our Global Kitchen. Visit http://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/grades-9-12/digital-learning-week for more information or to sign up!
  • Urban Word NYC is starting up its Winter Wordshops in early February. These free, after school writing workshops encourage creative expression in the literary arts, spoken word, hip-hop and performance. Weekly workshops are offered in Chelsea, in Crown Heights in Brooklyn, and at The Point in the Bronx. Email Signup@urbanwordnyc.org or click here for more details.
  • The National STEM Video Game Challenge will be accepting applications later this month! Hosted by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and E-Line Media (Hive NYC is also a sponsor!), the competition is open to middle and high school students across the country. See the 2012 winners below and click here to learn more about contest categories, prizes and to enter your video games!

NYC’s Annual Teen Design Fair: A Melting Pot of Ideas and Opportunities

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This is a re-post from the Hive column on Huffington Post Teen.

By Othilla Wlodarczyk, Cooper-Hewitt DesignPrep Scholar

“It serves to underscore that you never know where life’s serendipitous path is going to take you,” exclaimed fashion consultant and educational mentor Tim Gunn while sitting on the stage of New York City’s Teen Design Fair hosted by the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. This event has been taking place annually in two locations, New York City and Washington, D.C. for the past six years. This year it took place at the Altman Building on 18th street between 6th and 7th Avenue. The space, lit with pink and purple lights, has two floors: the first with seating for the multiple designers that were invited to speak with the attendees, and the basement with a large selection of finger food. The basement level also housed numerous stations each with speakers from different design colleges.

Tim Gunn, most popularly for his presence on the reality series Project Runway, was one of the many important attendees. America’s Next Top Model‘s judge and runway couch Jay Alexander, also known as “Miss J” sat at one of the designer’s stations on the first floor. The fair contained an ideal variety of designers from different fields. Among these designers were architect Stephen Cassell, media/graphic designer Eric Mortensen from Hello Monday, founder of Biomimicry 3.8 Institute Janine Benyus and Facebook’s communication designer Kate Aronowitz. Each designer was able to bring something new and unique to the table.

The fair was successfully able to bring over 100 aspiring designers together to explore and go in depth about the different fields of design, an opportunity many students going into the field of design are not able to experience. “It’s really amazing. I never had anyone to go to who was an architect, to ask what it was like, and I think it’s really important to talk to people and see what it’s really like. Is that something you want to dedicate your life and move forward in? This is an amazing opportunity and there are some really great designers here. I would be happy to go from table to table and talk to them without a doubt,” said Stephen Cassell of ARO.

One issue addressed at the fair was whether or not jobs were available currently in the field of design, a concern that many parents of the teens and young designers had. While Gunn highlighted that one needs to be prepared for and nurture the opportunities that present themselves in order to succeed, Aronowitz replied, “As far as interaction design goes, I don’t have enough people to take the jobs I’m offering!” Either way, it was made clear that moving forward in any field of the practical art takes a lot of effort and determination. According to Gunn, another necessity is to pick a school that suits your needs. He stated, “You should visit the schools that you are really interested in attending and project yourself into the environment. See if you can see yourself being a successful student there.”

From the amazing designers attending, to the overall professional environment of the event, this years’ New York City Teen Design Fair was a major success.

Photo Credit: Angela Jimenez Photography