Siena Hasson Matthew Escobar Franky Spektor

Elana Kalish

Colin Yap

Sarah Lee

Natalie Escobar

Lauren Payne

Jimmy Fairman

Yoyo Ulloa

Perri Williams Chloe Lee Rowlands

Artem Litvak Asher Guthertz Isabel Alves de Lima Patrick Varner

TEEN ART CONNECT 2013-2014

This facebooklet was designed by TAC intern Franky Spektor with mentorship from Louis Guzman-Woldrich. Special thanks to Airyka Rockefeller who facilitated a workshop with the interns during which the photographs and accompanying essays were created (inspired by the exhibition Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg.)

Programs at the CJM are made possible by major support from Deutsche Bank with additional generous support from Wells Fargo Foundation, Macy’s Foundation, and Union Bank Foundation

Teen Art Connect at The Contemporary Jewish Musuem

Teen Art Connect is a year-round paid internship program bringing together Bay Area youth from diverse backgrounds in a mutual exploration of art and culture, while offering opportunities to develop self-reliance, leadership skills, and job readiness skills. In addition to weekly work shifts in visitor services, family programs, and public events, interns are also trained as docents, providing public and private tours of the building and exhibitions. The interns also attend bi-monthly workshops in public speaking, visual literacy, art history, and museum education and plan events for other teens throughout the year.

SIENA HASSON

Jewish Community High School 2016

Besides my family, my world is the community at my school which I feel a part of. Jewish Community High School is not a big school, so there are strong connections that are developed with one another. My world is the friends I have at school, as well as the friends outside of this community. My friends and family have shaped me into the person I am today by opening my eyes to new things and helping me discover who I am. My world is also the beauty in art which is a great influence to me. Ever since I can remember, I have spent a lot of time at my father’s art studio watching him form his sculptures and develop as an artist. Art has shaped who I am today by exposing me to the beauties that the world holds. My world is filled with the art of people, as well as nature’s creations. Without art my world would be colorless.

MATTHEW ESCOBAR

Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep 2014

I crave excitement. I live in color—a bunch of Ben-Day dots printed on the pulpy pages of my life. Every successive panel adds to the story, and each weekly installment is a new adventure. Much like the comic books I read growing up, my world brims with action, humor, and drama, but unlike the citizens of Metropolis, I’m no innocent bystander. My insatiable curiosity leads me to pursue new opportunities and meet new people, because whenever there’s an adventure to be had, a story to be told, or a problem to be solved, I jump in with full enthusiasm.

FRANKY SPEKTOR

The Bay School 2014

I come from Vini Puh, the much sassier Russian version of Winnie the Pooh. I come from my grandfather’s stories, told over my grandmother’s 7 course dinners, with the lilt of Pugachova music playing always in the background. I come from books filled with spells and broadswords, from sketchbooks filled with faces, and from little siblings who like to scribble on both. I’m from a world where curiosity truly is the cure for boredom . . . and there is no cure for curiosity.

School of the Arts 2016

I don’t understand very much of the world or what goes on in it, and I feel like I should try to understand. I recently thought about what ethnicity and nationality and culture really mean in the human make-up of things, and I was struck by my own ambivalent answers to things. Like, what is my culture? What is my country? Where do I fit in the giant multitude of worlds? What were my answers supposed to be? Yes, I’m of Japanese and Chinese descent, but I do live here in America. I’m Asian-American, but what does that term even mean? I was born in Japan, moved to California at age one, and now speak English and not much else. I was raised on Japanese food adapted to a more Western style, and I grew up watching both Japanese and American television and movies—I understood more Japanese when I was younger, and I mostly just followed the plot loosely. Still, I feel in touch with this Western world. I love books written in English, American’s pop culture, America’s obsession with British pop culture. I love music, classic rock and hip-hop, all written by people using English. I belong to the Western world as well as the Eastern. I can choose to be an American citizen (when I turn 20 and have to choose between American and Japanese citizenship), and still live in the country of my origin without feeling I am leaving it behind; it is part of me.

COLIN YAP

Balboa High School 2014

My world includes many struggles and sacrifices. My mother had me quite young and had to sacrifice her education in order to raise me. I am not ashamed to say that my family has low-income because we have happiness and the will to strive instead. To me it means a lot more to help others before myself because I know what it is like to have nothing and I appreciate the little I have. Since I was young, what kept me reaching high was the pride from my parents. The best feeling for me is when I see the proud faces of my parents when I have done something well. This has shaped me into who I am today because I know that those who work hard will be rewarded in some way. As my mother says, “Whatever you plant today, you will harvest tomorrow. If you plant a cherry tree, don’t expect to get mangoes.”

YOYO ULLOA

LAUREN PAYNE

Mercy High School 2016

My world is a constant stream of new ideas and a changing perspective. I’m not the same person I was six months ago and that’s my favorite part.

SARAH LEE

Castro Valley High School 2014

I’m constantly being tossed around among many different worlds. My world at my crazy high school, my world at home, my world at the art studio. Simply put, all three are crazy, never consistent. The only thing that keeps me grounded in any place I go is having the ability to create. My world of creativity empowers me and gives me a sense of freedom and independence.

Ralph J. Bunche High School 2014

In my world I am not surrounded by positive influences. Every day I walk to and from my house I have to be cautious of my surroundings. Seeing the lack of improvement and negativity encourages me to be the opposite. Instead of being another statistic, I strive to be the best me I can be.

JIMMY FAIRMAN

NATALIE ESCOBAR

Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep 2014

At the end of the day, my family is my safety net, my comfort zone, and my entire world. I come from a very polarized background, since my mom is a Polish Chicagoan and my dad is a former refugee from the Salvadoran civil war. Although both of them came from extremely different origins, they set an example of hard work and self-sacrifice that has been instilled into me and my two brothers. Since they both work in non-profits, (my mom at the United Way of the Bay Area, my dad at the Saint Vincent de Paul Shelter) they’ve always fostered a sense of responsibility to the common good in me. My mom was the one who made me a bookworm and a curious observer of the world, thanks to our daily story times and weekly museum trips. My dad expanded my world view, telling me stories of his childhood in El Salvador and how difficult it was to grow up in a country marked by corruption and violence. My relationship with my brothers has given me endless patience and an incredibly thick skin, while teaching me the importance of not taking things too personally. No matter what happens in my life, I know I have my family to fall back on. They’ve completely shaped my way of thinking, my values, and my goals in life. Without them and their love, I would be nothing.

San Mateo High School 2014

My world is defined by the people surrounding me. My friends, my family, my teachers, and my advisors all make me the person I am today. I have also always been incredibly involved within my Jewish community and honestly have no idea where I would be if my parents hadn’t instilled the idea that my faith is important—I would not be the leader I am today if it wasn’t for things like B’nai Brith Youth Organization (BBYO), and I wouldn’t be the listener I am today if it wasn’t for my synagogue and the North Peninsula Jewish Teen Foundation.

ELANA KALISH

Bishop O’Dowd High School 2014

My world is filled with a contrast of societal standards. I grew up in a wealthy suburban town, with a very homogeneous population. Transferring to Bishop O’Dowd High School opened my eyes and enabled me to interact with many different people of many different backgrounds. A lot of my friends don’t have a lot of money compared to my family, but they are smart, nice, and great people, and I really don’t care if they are “rich or poor”. I feel that since I have transferred, I’ve become more accepting, and less judgmental of people.

PERRI WILLIAMS

Piedmont High School 2016

My world is made up of a lot of different aspects, which work together to make me more of a well-rounded person. My parents have been divorced since I was two, helping to teach me to be self-reliant and resourceful. Besides my family, my relationships with my friends have shaped who I am today. In early middle school I was part of the “popular crowd”, but as I grew up I left that group, choosing instead to find people who shared my interests and liked me for who I am. This taught me to be myself no matter the circumstances, because if your friends don’t accept you for who you are they aren’t worth your time. Another aspect of my world is art. Art allows me to express myself, allowing me to put my world onto paper. These are just a few aspects of my world, as my world is made up of many different parts, just as I am.

CHLOE LEE ROWLANDS

Jewish Community High School of the Bay 2014

My Russian heritage and Jewish background have helped me define who I am today. I feel proud of my Russian ethnicity when someone asks me the generic and seemingly vague question “what are you?” and I say Russian. My pride grows even larger, however, when they ask me if I’m from Moscow and I answer that I’m actually from Ufa, a place that no one really knows about. It also serves as a place for me to connect to my Russian heritage by being a spot that has not been touched by other cultures as much as say Moscow. The other side of me that quietly screams Jewish, mainly due to the fact that I have been going to Jewish schools for the past 12 years, is a changing and evolving one that I am not entirely sure where to place yet. Although my Jewish background and ancestry certainly gives me the knowledge that my ancestral history has largely been Jewish, I still find myself figuring out if I really identify as Jewish spiritually or simply culturally.

ARTEM LITVAK

ASHER GUTHERTZ

Lick-Wilmerding High School 2014

I am 17. I live with my father, my mother, and my sister. I go to a school with a lot of rich white people. I love James Franco. I do not like Lena Dunham. I want to make television. I wrote a script about two people that run off together and start a community theater. I hope to someday get it made. I love this museum. I love working here. I love the people here. I like the sculpture on Market Street where two people can hear each other from far away. I do not particularly like the Internet. I don’t really trust it. I like stuffed pasta. I want to own a grocery store. I’m a bit off, but like most people that are off, I couch it as artistic. I identify with old men. That is my world.

Lowell High School 2016

Wow. How do I describe my world? I guess I would start with school. I go to Lowell High School, a school widely known for its stellar academics and overachieving students. There, I feel at home with my fellow nerds. Not everything is about school, though. I have considered myself a dancer ever since my mom found this great, ultra-feminist dance studio when I was three. Dance Mission is my second home. This year, because I am in the Teen Art Connect program at The CJM and the schedules conflict, I am taking a yearlong break from Dance Mission. However, I am taking the Advanced Dance class at school, so it’s not all bad. The other aspect of my world is books. I learned how to read in first grade, and I do not think I have stopped since. All the librarians at my local branch know me by name, and I feel ashamed to leave if I have checked out less than about twenty books. (I usually finish those twenty books in no more than three weeks.) That’s all, folks. Welcome to my world.

ISABEL ALVES DE LIMA

Tilden Preparatory School 2014

My world is unique, to say the least. The cards I’ve been dealt haven’t always been the best, or the easiest to live with, but I’ve never let them get the better of me. There’s never been much hope aside from outgrowing my problems, which has given me a productive, but exceedingly cynical view on life. I’ve never given up control, and I’ve never let my vices get the better of me. I’d like to think that my health issues have made me a better person. At the very least, they’ve taught me not to let personal issues interfere with the bottom line.

PATRICK VARNER

2013-2014

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