By Milena Kalinovska, Hirshorn Museum & Sculpture Garden

ARTLAB+, the Hirshhorn Museum’s signature youth program, gives DC-area teens the space, resources, and technology to explore their creativity while developing important visual and digital literacy skills.  The ArtLab space in the Sculpture Garden reopened with new equipment in October 2011. The addition of a recording studio and comfortable gaming area features high-end equipment and a library of video games carefully curated for their artistry and innovation. Teens are encouraged to drop in afterschool and bring their friends to explore, test and develop new projects.

Like the gaming area, Noise Factory, the club associated with the recording studio,  has a dedicated mentor who is a music technician from the DC area.  Under the moniker of Native Stars, this club produced a  sound art installation of field recordings from their neighborhoods. This was featured in Honfleur Gallery in Anacostia.  Most recently teens from Noise Factory worked with John Esparza on a soundtrack for his short film titled S.E.R.E.  The film is about a soldier that has volunteered to be in this training. The training is to learn how to resist interrogations, mind games, how to escape the enemy and survive in the wild. This film is being submitted to the GI Film Festival.

The ArtLab and ARTLAB+ programs are headed by Ryan Hill, Director of Digital Learning Programs, who along with his staff have created opportunities for teens to engage; via DropZone, an afterschool program, held every week day from 3 to 7 pm and on Saturdays from 12 to 5 pm. The flexibility of the space and it’s mentors have allowed for teens to create their own clubs.

Poetry Lvrs, a group of teens dedicated to creating a poetry journal, developed on ARTLAB+ facebook page before holding their meetings in the space. There is also an impromptu group of teen dj’s who rotate evening to show their skills. We have engaged eSopcialMediaShop small local marketing group to help us to bring new teens to visit ARTLAB+ for the first time. Through this effort, we hope to lay the foundation for a self-sustaining network of teens. The space continues to grow and respond to the teens that use it. We are fortunate to have funding from the Pearson Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Knight Foundation to foster this exciting learning environment.

Please look our website for further information: ARTLAB+