Hi All!

My name is Ashley Hui and I'm currently a junior, studying in the field of Industrial Design. I am passionate about everything that is design-- the aesthetics, the technical aspects-- you name it. As we tend to say that 'everything is design', I feel this holds particularly true throughout my own life. Absolutely, I am a hand-on type of person and worker. There are few things I can keep my hands off of from fiddling with and seeing how they function.

I feel extremely privileged for the opportunity to be working with my alum-host, Machele Nettles. After having met with her over coffee, I had the chance to ask her many questions and get a grasp of exactly what she does-- and she certainly does a lot! She is an incredibly talented industrial designer who is both the creative director and owner of Talk Design Studio. She is experienced in the process of taking her concepts, and turning them into real products to be sold on the market. With my interest in product design and entrepreneurship increasing by the day, I am very excited at the prospect of learning from Machele.

This summer, Machele is focusing on a proposal for a concept of hers which I will be able to follow the process of. She is also a strong advocate of experimentation; we will be experimenting with many different materials with expected variable results, some which we hope may lead to being happy surprises! Machele is also currently in the process of starting a jewelry line, and I will have the opportunity to walk through this process with her, even assisting her in contacting local and overseas sources. In addition to this, there will also be some aspects of marketing involved. I am very excited for this summer, and I hope everyone enjoys their summer as well!

About Myself and Cardell Dance Theater

Hello! My name is Hayley Stricker and I am currently a dance major at the University of the Arts.  My two passions are art and healing. I consider myself to be a performer at this stage in my life however I have a history of teaching dance to students with a wide range of ages and abilities. I’ve had the opportunity to work with many different types of students and to help them improve not only physically but also mentally and emotionally. Through my experience I have noticed a very strong connection between dance and the mind. I’ve seen dance classes transform many student’s attitudes and mindsets along with my own. This realization has guided me to becoming extremely interested in studying somatic therapy. I also oil paint, draw, and read and write poetry. Even in my own relationship to my personal art I have noticed a very strong connection between dance, art, the body, and the mind. I also enjoy volunteering and offering therapeutic art classes to people in crisis. This  gives me the opportunity to heal and inspire others while offering new perspectives for a happier and healthier way of life. Overall I think it’s important to remember that people do have resilience in their lives. When it comes to my personal artistry as a dancer or choreographer, I am inspired by the connection between the body and the mind or the dancer’s body to the viewer’s mind.  For me, dance is about sharing love, ideas, controversies, legacies, and the freedom of expression. This is important because I’m a heavy believer in the theory that all art that we witness becomes a part of us. I dance because I’m mostly a thinker, but when I move I become a powerful speaker. I believe that these theories are true to other art forms as well.  Alongside healing individuals, I also believe that art and specifically dance has the power to heal our society. Often, dance has the ability to succeed when words fail us. Silvana Cardell of Cardell Dance Theater is working on a project called Supper, People on the Move. This performance is about immigration and the intentions and decisions of people moving from place to place. I am working as Silvana Cardell’s assistant on this project along with set and costume designers, a guest artist, and 6 dancers. The performance involves stories from people who have left their original countries and have migrated. I am extremely excited to be a part of a project that offers compassion and brings light to a topic that needs to be shared and is desperate to be understood in today's society. I hope to learn about the many choreographic techniques and process that go into developing a piece that exposes such a heavy and important topic. 

I invite you all to the show!

Click here for tickets: http://supperdance.com

The Perfect First Day

Dear Fellow Summer Fellows, 

I would say it was the perfect day, but to be more accurate I should say it was the perfect evening. Usually I’m going to work on Wednesdays but we decided to start me a week early on a Friday because they were having an open mic night with a headliner musician. My initial thoughts actually turned toward comfort, because if there’s one thing UArts as trained me for, it’s open mic nights. I knew this was going to be a good first showcase of my abilities as an event coordinator because the set up was exactly like an event I would plan for the school year. The difference is that this event was on a community scale and that’s exactly what I want from this fellowship, a connection to the community. I arrived around 6 and I finally met Ms. Val who greeted me with such a warm embrace. I immediately felt at home. I met another intern whose name is Sydney and she goes to Howard University for Public Relations. She also wants to be an event coordinator and I found her humor and outgoingness charming. I met some other volunteers and board members, including Ms. Francis who I will talk about later. Mostly I helped wherever I was needed, setting up the outdoor area, tending to the food, or greeting musicians. I tried to make myself as available and versatile as possible, including putting my name on the list of performers. I met some of Philly’s most colorful dressers and personalities, many of who work in someway with Art Sanctuary. Everyone treated me as one of the family and asks lots of questions or gave me lot of encouragement before I went to read my poem. I especially connected with Ms. Francis who is a volunteer at Art Sanctuary. She is a lovely, older woman who works with a youth group of young women form 12-18, where she helps them with life skills through volunteering, college visits, or workshops. We had many great conversations about life and poetry and when I read my poem she recorded it and then gave me a big hug afterwards. All of my grandparents have passed away, and I never got to really know my African-American grandmother on my dad’s side, so meeting women like Ms. Francis really fills a void in my heart. I’m not sure how these things happen to me but I ended up closing the show and reading my poem after the headliner! People responded so positively to my poem and I felt really empowered. I helped clean up and because it was 10, Ms. Val called me an Uber, and paid for it out of her own pocket. This was such a fantastic start to my summer and this fellowship and I cannot wait to see how the rest of the summer unfolds.

Maggie's Introduction of Herself and Beyond

Hello Fellow Summer Fellowers,

I am a storyteller above all, which transcends into all of my art forms. It is my belief that artists are the litmus paper of our society and serve to reveal the health of a generation for all the ages to come. Artists must stay the most awake and aware of societal issues and injustices when no one else is willing to acknowledge them. I want to use my art to share aesthetics and awareness. I’m a Creative Writing major with a poetry concentration, because writing comes the most naturally to me, but I also enjoy visual art. I’m currently taking many illustration classes as well. An additional passion of mine is serving others, especially through the works of non-profits. Within non-profits, I’d like to either be a director or the event coordinator. This brings me to my Summer Fellow position. This summer I am a Summer Fellow for the first time and I am working with the Art Sanctuary, but perhaps more specifically, with Ms. Val Gay. Unfortunately she has been sick and then busy, so I was not able to meet her in person and learn about her experience at the University of the Arts, or what major see was. What I do know is that she is a female, black leader in America, which is what America desperately needs more of. Art Sanctuary serves the Philadelphia community by bringing people together through black art. They host musical performances, gallery shows, and poetry readings in their own space. Outside of their space they host workshops and events all over the city. This month they are celebrating black writers and are hosting workshops all month. They also do a lot of work with children, which I believe is extremely important because they are our future. This includes weekly storytime, craft workshops, and other events. Art Sanctuary also serves to educate the community with workshops and classes to make art materials and skills more available to different income levels. When Ms. Val and I spoke on the phone we talked about connecting me specially with the event coordinators that she hires, and also using my visual and literary skills for marketing events. I’m the most excited about gaining real world experience in a non-profit and networking with other black leaders and artists. My hope is to begin fostering my community beyond UArts and into the Philadelphia region, and then the world as a whole.