Herbert Hoover Boys and Girls Club with OASIS
HERBERT HOOVER BOYS & GIRLS CLUB with OASIS
Training: January 12 - March 18, 2008; Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club; Ron Laboray, Instructor
Exhibition SITE #1: PPRC Photography Project Gallery
April 15 - June 29, 2008
Exhibition SITE #2: Herbert Hoover Boys and Girls Club
April 22 - June 29, 2008
Special Exhibition: OASIS Artists' Annual, Clayton on the Park, St. Louis
December 13, 2008 - February 3, 2009
Websites: www.hhbgc.org and www.oasisnet.org
This Project brought together two highly regarded St. Louis community groups for some intergenerational communication. Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club works to enable children (ages 6 to 18) "to realize their full potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens." OASIS is a national non-profit organization, founded in St. Louis, through which "older adults continue their personal growth and provide meaningful service to the community." Photography Project Instructor Ron Laboray introduced the OASIS volunteers and Herbert Hoover after-school program participants (ages 8 to 13) to the work of American photographers Robert Frank and Aaron Siskind. Robert Frank took gritty black-and-white photographs of urban living, and Aaron Siskind photographed close-ups of peeling paint and dusty bricks that looked like beautiful abstract paintings. With these photographers in mind, Laboray and the OASIS volunteers took the young participants on walks in the neighborhood surrounding Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club. Many of the children took Siskind-like photos of brick walls or diamond-patterned tiles. Robert Frank's images inspired participants to take photographs of themselves and the OASIS volunteers in the urban environment. Some training time was also set aside to talk. OASIS volunteers spoke about life in St. Louis while they were growing up. Some things had changed for the better: segregation ended, computers made everything faster, and cell phones enhanced safety. However, one OASIS volunteer told of how, as a young child, she walked all over town and rode the streetcars alone, as far as 15 blocks from her home. Sadly, the young participants said, "it is far too dangerous to wander around like that anymore." OASIS volunteers also helped "translate" the historic photographs that Ron Laboray used in his teaching. The young participants were mystified by Robert Frank's famous photograph of a jukebox. The OASIS volunteers described the machine, "how they would drop in a quarter, pick out a favorite song and dance." But the mystery wasn't really cleared up until they described it as an "overgrown iPod."
--Mel Watkin, Instructor and Director
PPRC Photography Project
PARTICIPANTS:
Herbert Hoover Boys and Girls Club: Ages 8 to 13
Ashton Barry
Devonte Brown
Charles Brown
Alexis Gordon
Ariel Gordon
Anastasia McMiller
Jari Mitchell
Raychell Mitchell
Bria Paige
Keith Thomas
OASIS Volunteer Participants
Blanche Brightwell
Nancy Collins
Gloria Curtis
Barbara Groneck
Louise Hardke
Harriet Howard
Earline Leavy
Billie M. Phillips
Marilyn Sue Warren
Margaret Sweeting White
COMMUNITY PARTNERS:
Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club of St. Louis
OASIS