Northern New Mexico's Community Network

 
 Open Studio

La Plaza Telecommunity  was awarded a grant from the McCune Charitable Foundation to incorporate Taos youth into OPEN STUDIO: The Arts online.  The grant provided funding for La Plaza to develop a project, which provides young people in the Taos community opportunities to explore career options in the arts and technology.

La Plaza parternered with the Taos Municipal Schools, Penasco Independent Schools and the Taos Pueblo Day School.  The Key goals of the project were to develop youth skills in computer technology, communications and multimedia presentations and to establish a youth-centered production team to develop a virtual archive of cultural activities, artifacts and oral histories of Taos County.

The project explored youth development through the use of the arts and technology to empower them to not only be consumers, but also producers of information.  Open Studio youth participants created projects in a variety of ways, with an emphasis on computer graphics, multimedia, and the Internet.

Here are bio web pages that the students have developed about themelves. Be sure to follow the links to the websites some of them have already created.


Lucia Torres
James Vigil
Ian Martin
Amanda Gutierrez
Tristen Montoya
Nathaniel Sandoval
Krystle McCabe
Daniel Gonzales
Jackie Montoya
Lauralee Archuleta
Valerie Rudolph
Leo Martinez
Ana Quintana


The students created digital stories that utilized all the skills they learned throughout the year. Please note if you are using a dial-up connection and depending on your connection speed, it may take a while for you to download these stories to view.


My Native Struggle - A Dream Washed Away
Tristen Montoya's digital story describes his personal journey as a young Taos Pueblo man trying to hold on to the traditional ways while living in modern times.

Taos Plaza
Ian Martin and James Vigil collaborated on this story about Taos and the historic Taos Plaza.

San Francisco de Asis Church
Amanda Gutierrez and Lucia Torrez tell the story of the Ranchos de Taos Church where their families have worshiped for centuries.

Drawing From The Well - Penasco Community Project
Penasco students Lauralee Archuleta, Leo Martinez, Jackie Montoya and Valerie Rudolph documented the "Drawing From The Well" project, a collaboration of the Penasco School District eigth grade classes, La Jicarita School-To-Work program and Judy Goldberg. Penasco students studied the importance of water in their community by interviewing community members for a radio segment. The year long project culminated in a community celebration where the students displayed the work they had done. The Open Studio youth collected images and audio files to produce this digital story.

Cesar Chavez Day
Ana Quintana participated in Cesar Chavez Day in Taos sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps. Ana recounts the day with pictures she took and a narrative describing her experience, and what she learned about who is Cesar Chavez.

Folk Music of Northern New Mexico
Nathaniel Sandoval highlights Northern New Mexico folk music with a tribute to Los Amigos Del Norte, a local band that has its beginning in the early 1900's. Nathaniel's grandfather was a member of the band. The band has received numerous accolades and recognition for their contribution to folk music.

For more information please contact Nancy Montano, Project Coordinator at 758-1836, email  nmontano@laplaza.org.

 
 
 
 

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